Altered Destiny: Divergence Point
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis xover. AU. When Anubis makes a different decision during his attack on Earth in Lost City a chain of events is unleashed that will change the universe forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Altered Destiny: Divergence Point**

Authors Notes: This idea occurred to me after watching the Stargate SG-1 seventh season finale Lost City again on DVD. It got me to wondering what could have happened had Anubis made a slightly different choice when he attacked Earth in that amazing double episode.

Story events take place from towards the end of the second part of Lost City and will go AU from there. Also since I don't like the Ori storyline established in season nine and ten of SG-1 I will not be using it I hope people don't mind too much. Instead this story and those that follow it will focus on the butterfly effect of the what if scenario.

Conversation in bold type is a normal Goa'uld or a Tok'ra speaking and conversation in bold italics is Anubis speaking.

* * *

**Chapter One**

Anubis stood proudly, arrogantly on the pel'tac of his newly completed command ship – replacing the one destroyed by Ba'al and the System Lords over the country of Kelowna on the planet Langara. A planet he was really going to have to get around to conquering given the extremely powerful and never before known isotope of naquada called naquadria found there.

But first there was another matter to deal with. And that was the Tau'ri, the one race of Humans who had been a persistent thorn in his and other System Lords sides. A race that was after the weapons of the Ancients, something that they could not be allowed to get their hands on, for it would tip the balance of power irrevocably in their favour and end any chance he had of becoming the supreme ruler of the galaxy.

The sound of footsteps behind him caught his attention but he ignored them and continued gazing out at the stars. His ship and a sizeable detachment of advanced Ha'tak's from his elite forces were waiting here in space mere seconds in hyperspace out from the Tau'ri homeworld, waiting for confirmation from the Ha'tak dispatched as a scout that the Tau'ri already had weapons designed by the most powerful race ever to walk the stars.

"My Lord," Herak – his loyal and gifted First Prime – said from behind him. Anubis turned to face the proud Jaffa; Herak was a credit to his race and still firmly believed that the Goa'uld were Gods and that those who said otherwise were blasphemers and traitors.

"_**Speak,"**_ Anubis ordered as Herak went down on one knee before him.

"We have received word from the advanced Ha'tak, my lord," Herak replied. "They report no challenge from the Tau'ri and no response to their attack."

Had he still had a Human host body not a partially ascended one Anubis would have smiled in relief, the lack of a response from the Tau'ri confirmed that they didn't yet have access to Ancient weapons. There was still time to nip that threat in the bud, and get rid of a major annoyance in the process.

"_**Order the fleet to proceed to the Tau'ri homeworld,"**_ he ordered. _**"And prepare to send a holographic transmission on my command."**_

"Yes, my lord," Herak replied.

Anubis turned away and resumed looking out the viewport at the star studded blackness of space. Accepting the dismissal for what it was Herak stood up and returned to the main control console to relay his God's orders to the assembled fleet.

While his First Prime carried out his commands Anubis studied the stars, dreaming of what was to come. Soon all of these stars would belong to him and he would rule over them all and any sentient species they supported as their God. It was his right, a right that had long been denied him first by Ra and then the ascended Ancients.

After a second the view outside changed into the shimmering blue tunnel-effect of hyperspace, but only for a moment. With breathtaking suddenness hyperspace once more gave way to normal space. And there in front of the ship was the Tau'ri homeworld, even by the standards of the galaxy it was a lovely world to look at with the greens, yellows and browns of the landmasses, the azure blue of the oceans and the white fluffy clouds over them all.

The other Ha'tak's came into his view, swinging around to encircle the planet. After settling into their orbits the Ha'tak's did nothing, waiting for their Gods next command. Anubis for his part waited anxiously for a few moments, half expecting powerful energy bolts – or some other such advanced weapon – to come shooting up from the planets surface to blow his ships from the sky as he wouldn't have put it past the Tau'ri to hold fire until the entire fleet was in orbit of their world so they could destroy it in one fell swoop. Needless to say it was a relief to him when no challenge at all came from the planet. Anubis turned away from the viewport and returned to his throne dais and settled down on his throne, imperiously putting his arms on the sides of the throne he gave his next command.

"_**Activate the holographic transmitter,"**_ he ordered. _**"I wish to speak with the leader of the Tau'ri."**_

"Yes my lord," Herak answered.

For a moment nothing happened, and then a line of light passed down Anubis form as he was scanned. Then holograms of multiple figures appeared before him, some of them moving back while others raised the primitive Tau'ri weapons at him and opened fire. Not that their bullets being holographic could do him any harm.

"Hold fire it's a hologram," one of the Tau'ri – a dark skinned male in a green military uniform decked out with medals and markings whose meaning only the Tau'ri knew – said.

"_**I am Anubis,"**_ Anubis said.

An older male Tau'ri moved up to him. "You've got to be kidding," he said.

"_**You are the leader of this world?"**_ Anubis asked.

"Henry Hayes," the Tau'ri answered. "President of the United States of America, one nation among many."

"_**No longer, bow down before your God."**_

Amazingly the Tau'ri male gave a typically insolent sounding laugh. "I don't think so, but I am willing to discuss terms for your surrender."

Has he still been capable of the expression Anubis would have frowned in confusion and concern at that statement. Was this insolent man saying that the Tau'ri did indeed have the weapons of the Ancients and were only holding fire to extract a humiliating surrender out of him? He doubted that was the case, anyone with an ounce of sanity would have started firing on his ships the moment they'd emerged from hyperspace.

"_**If you had weapons such as mine, you would have used them."**_

"Don't let the suit fool you, fella, we're going to fight."

"_**You bring destruction upon yourselves and your world. Reconsider and I shall be merciful."**_

"Not going to happen."

"_**Very well you have brought what is to follow down upon yourselves,"**_ Anubis answered before manipulating a control on the arm of his throne making the hologram vanish. _**"Herak instruct the fleet to begin firing on all orbital satellites and space stations,"**_ he ordered. _**"Then have the fleet move into planetary bombardment position and prepare all Udajeet and Alkesh squadrons for launch."**_

"Yes my lord."

* * *

For a few moments the Goa'uld ships remained stationary in high orbit of Earth, not doing anything. Then they burst into violent life, golden bolts of superheated plasma wrapped in gravitic fields beginning to blast forth from their weapons arrays

Streaking silently through the vacuum of space the powerful bolts of energy began impacting the many satellites in orbit of Earth, eliciting small explosions as satellites dissolved into hazy balls of disassociated ions at the caress of the plasma. Shot after shot emerged from the Goa'uld ships, methodically destroying the multitude of satellites in orbit slowly but surely destroying the communications and navigational systems on which so much on Earth now depended.

Simultaneously the massive command mothership fired one of its primary weapons, a weapon build by Anubis but like his shield technology it was based largely on Ancient technological principles. The brilliant searing orange energy beam lanced out and struck the International Space Station – in less than a moment the particle beam cut right through the modules of the station, neatly cutting it in two. Explosive decompression ripped through what was left of the station and mercifully silenced the screams of the astronauts stationed onboard.

Even as the International Space Station disintegrated into a plume of debris a heavy volley of plasma fire erupted from the command ship, and slammed into the Hubble Space Telescope shredding the multi-million dollar scientific instrument like it was tin foil. And still the destruction in orbit went on as the Goa'uld fleet systematically went about eliminating everything Human-made from planetary orbit.

* * *

**The White House**

**That Same Time**

General Jumper – head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – put down the red phone with a sigh, before turning to look at President Hayes.

"Mr President its been confirmed," he said. "The Goa'uld fleet is firing on all orbiting satellites, NASA also confirms that the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station have been destroyed."

"Was there anybody aboard the station," Hayes asked.

"Yes a joint French-Russian-American team, six astronauts," Jumper answered sombrely knowing those people would be as dead as the crews of the ships in the _Nimitz_ carrier group, destroyed earlier by fire from one Goa'uld ship.

Hayes closed his eyes for a moment and said a silent prayer for the souls of the dead astronauts, though there were likely to be a lot more deaths before this was over. He opened his eyes again as Jumper continued.

"The Goa'uld are methodically destroying every satellite from every country that is in orbit," Jumper said. "My guess is they are determined to blind and deafen us before they proceed to the next phase of their attack."

"Which is?"

"If the Goa'uld stick to their previously established attack patterns then once all orbital installations are neutralised they'll begin planetary bombardment," General George Hammond answered. "They'll most likely target key military installations and communications centres first, before shifting focus to the cities."

"You cannot know that," Vice President Robert Kinsey pointed out, glaring at the general. This was exactly the situation he had feared would happen from the moment the Air Force had opened the Stargate, gone out into the galaxy and started knocking off System Lords, despite his attempts to put a stop to a program that he saw to be too great a risk. "Suppose the Goa'uld start firing at our cities immediately what then general. From all your forays through the gate does the Air Force have the means to protect our cities from two hundred megaton plasma blasts?"

Hammond scowled at the vice president. Kinsey already knew the answer to that question, and was just trying to rub his nose in it that for all their successes the standing order of the Stargate Programme to gather advanced technologies to protect Earth from the Goa'uld threat had not been met. True they had the _Prometheus_ and she did have Asgard shields and a single Asgard designed energy weapon but she would not be much good against an entire Goa'uld armada.

"Not at this time," he answered, "though I have no doubt that SG-1 will succeed in their mission and return with the means to defeat Anubis."

Kinsey snorted. "Yes your vaunted flagship team, the ones responsible for endangering everyone on this planet more times than I care to count," he sneered. "They've been more trouble than they were worth, and far too sentimental and now we're about to pay the price for their actions."

"Enough, Bob," Hayes snapped. "I will not allow you to use this attack to further your own agenda."

"I was simply pointing out that SG-1 and the SGC are the cause of this," Kinsey replied. "They should have transferred control over to properly trained personnel years ago, personnel who would have procured what we need by any and all possible means."

"I said enough," Hayes told him firmly. Kinsey glared back.

"You have no real idea what's been going on," he said back. "This program should have been stopped long…"

"Enough. Bob if you're not going to shut up then you can leave; there is no time for recriminations and accusations now."

Kinsey went quiet and just glowered at both the president and General Hammond he was not at all surprised that Hayes was taking Hammond's side. Hayes was ex-Air Force himself and Kinsey's own sources had told him that Henry Hayes and George Hammond had served together in the Vietnam War. Still he would make sure that the public knew who was responsible for what was to come, especially if the Goa'uld did start raining plasma down upon cities all over the world. Assuming there were any survivors, something that would only happen if either SG-1 did come back with something that could be used against the Goa'uld armada in orbit, or if a miracle happened and the Asgard showed up to punish Anubis for violating the Protected Planets Treaty.

Hayes ignored the look that Kinsey was giving him; he wasn't worried about his vice president. Thanks to evidence provided by Mr Woolsey and others he knew the kind of skeletons that Robert Kinsey had in his closet. Skeletons that Kinsey wouldn't want people to know about, as some of the actions he had been party to were illegal and some almost treasonous. If push came to shove he could use what he knew against Kinsey, though the other man didn't know that he knew what he knew. _No doubt his friends in The Trust would try and have me assassinated if they even suspected all that I know about Kinsey and his connection to them,_ he thought.

It was at that moment that his national security advisor spoke up. "Sir given the situation I feel it would be advisable to begin relocation of all key personnel to the Alpha Site," she said softly. "Starting with you."

"No I'm staying here," Hayes answered, while others would run from this situation he wouldn't, he'd stay here and lead his country for as long as he could. "I won't leave until there is no other choice, but Bob you go on ahead."

"Mr President it would make more sense for you to go," Kinsey pointed out. "We can keep in contact with you through the Stargate and send word w…"

"No you can go, Bob. I'm staying here."

Kinsey looked at the president for a moment, his posture clearly indicating that he thought Hayes was being a fool. Then Kinsey turned and left the Oval Office to get on a plane or helicopter for the hop to Cheyenne Mountain and Stargate Command.

Hayes turned to the other people in the room. "Anyone here is welcome to join him," he said.

No one moved then General Maynard summed up what everyone else was feeling. "I think you know we're staying here with you, sir," he said.

Hayes nodded and turned to the quiet General Hammond. "God knows George you've earned the right to go."

"No sir, I think I'll stay as well," Hammond answered.

"Good then if you are willing to do it then I have another job for you." Hammond raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what Hayes meant when the red phone on the desk rang again, and General Jumper picked it up.

"Yes I understand," Jumper said listening to what he was being told. "Thank you," he put the phone down and turned to the president. "Mr President the Goa'uld have just destroyed the last of the orbital satellites. Deep space radar reports that the Goa'uld fleet is moving into low orbit."

"There preparing to begin bombardment," Hammond said knowingly. "No doubt they'll begin scrambling squadrons of Alkesh and Gliders to assist in their attack."

"John tell all air bases to begin an emergency scramble, ready to counter enemy fighters and bombers," Hayes instructed. "And order all surface to air missile batteries to move into position."

"Yes sir," General John Jumper said and picked up the red phone.

"In the meantime sir it would be advisable for us to retreat to the emergency command bunker," General Maynard said. "It should provide us with some protection from the Goa'uld bombardment, while still enabling us to coordinate our defence."

Hayes sighed but knew he couldn't argue. It wouldn't take much for the Goa'uld to destroy the White House, indeed one plasma bolt from space was all it would take, and they would have a much better chance in the emergency bunker. After all it had been designed to withstand a massive nuclear assault.

"Very well," he said.

* * *

High in orbit the fleet of Goa'uld Ha'tak's and the gigantic command mothership shifted their positions, moving closer to the Earth's atmosphere so their weapons blasts would be more effective when they reached the surface. While they could fire from high orbit the plasma bolts would be so diffused by the time they reached the surface that damage would be minimal but firing from low orbit would get around the diffusion problem at least as much as possible as plasma bolts like all energy weapons began diffusing the moment they left the firing weapon.

From the fleet's hanger bays poured legions of the deadly Goa'uld fighters that the SGC had come to call Death Gliders. Launching from larger bays came fewer numbers of the equally deadly Alkesh mid-range bombers, their holds loaded with Goa'uld plasma bombs. The small craft all formed up, preparing to dive down into the atmosphere the moment the command from their God was received.

Silently the Goa'uld capital ships completed their manoeuvres and stopped, with major population centres all over the globe of the Earth in range of their weapons.

* * *

**Anubis Command Ship**

"My lord," Herak reported from his console. "The fleet reports that they are in position to commence planetary bombardment. All primary Alkesh and Glider squadrons have been launched and are ready to begin the attack."

Had he been capable of it Anubis would have smiled from where he stood at the pel'tac viewport, looking down at the blue-green world below him; the Tau'ri leader had been foolish to defy him, now they would pay the price for President Hayes' folly.

"_**Open fire,"**_ he ordered.

"Yes my lord."

Anubis permitted himself a slight chuckle and watched as the first bolts of plasmatic destruction birthed from the ships he could see and shot down towards the planets surface. At long last he was delivering Goa'uld justice to the Tau'ri, raining righteous retribution down upon them for all the crimes they'd committed against the Goa'uld race.

Shot after shot birthed from his ships while Anubis watched. Within a few hours the Tau'ri would be no more, blasted into extinction, the threat they had posed for several years now would be over. Then he would resume his search for the Lost City of the Ancients and the secrets it contained, secrets that once in his hands would give him dominion over much of the known universe. Not even the mighty Asgard would be able to stand in his way.

Quietly jubilant of the prospect that he might soon be able to rule multiple galaxies Anubis turned away from the viewport and returned to his pel'tac throne.

Meanwhile below Earth began to burn.

* * *

**F-16 Fighter Squadron**

**Over Washington **

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Major John Sheppard resisted the impulse to frown in confusion as he guided his F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter through the skies above Washington DC. A few minutes ago all the squadrons on the Air Force base that he was stationed on had been ordered to scramble and assume a defensive position over the city.

It had him wondering what was going on, reading between the lines there were notes of fear in the orders. Something was going on; he could feel it in his blood and in his bones, something that had the brass in the Pentagon rattled. _Must be something to do with Al-Qaeda,_ he thought thinking about the on-going so called war on terror started by the previous president. _Maybe that bunch of Islamic fundamentalist psycho's is up to something, trying to carry out another attack, I wouldn't put it past them to try something now that we have a new president._

No sooner than that thought had passed through his head than something incredibly fast moving came down from somewhere above, and sliced through his wingman's fighter. Instantly the F-16 turned into a fireball as fuel and ordinance detonated, tearing the fighter apart before the pilot even had a chance to register what was happening, let alone scream. The pilots of the remaining fighters – John included – stared in stunned shock for a few moments, before training kicked in and the squadron started taking evasive action to avoid whoever was firing at them.

Another blast came down from somewhere above, and another, and another. And this time John was able to see that there weren't missiles or machine gun rounds as he would have expected but some sort of energy bolt. The bolts fell to Earth and slammed into the cityscape below, where they struck huge explosions erupted, whole city blocks being instantly razed to the ground. Even from here John imagined that he could hear the screams of fear, pain and terror coming from below.

More and more of the whitish gold energy bolts came down, coming from somewhere beyond the sky, to strike the city below. Each one causing a fireball to erupt as they exploded on contact with the ground. John Sheppard and the other pilots could only watch in horrified helplessness as their nation's capital began to burn, and still more energy blasts came down to pummel the city and feed the conflagration.

"We've got to do something," one of the airmen said over the squadron's mutual frequency, his voice hard edged with horror and rage at the slaughter that they all knew would be unfolding below.

"But what can we do," another asked. "Where the hell are these, these energy blasts coming from?"

"From orbit it looks like," John answered.

"Be serious, Sheppard," Colonel Tim Dalby snapped from the leading plane. "No one on Earth has weapons capable of striking from space. Next thing we know you'll be saying were under alien attack."

"How else would you describe it, sir?" Sheppard asked his new CO. The two of them didn't exactly see eye-to-eye due to the fact that he'd once disobeyed orders while stationed in Afghanistan. The fact that it had been the right thing to do, after all a cardinal rule of the Air Force was that they didn't leave people behind, was immaterial to his CO who seemed to be one of those officers who believed that soldiers should be machines and that orders – any orders – should be followed without question.

"Well I'd s…arrghh," his CO's voice dissolved into a scream as one of the energy bolts sliced through his fighters right wing, snapping it clean off and making the fighter spin out of control before detonating fuel turned it into a fireball.

A moment later Sheppard's radar screen came alive with contacts coming down from an impossible height. Most of them were fighter sized, but a handful were larger, they were coming down in formation and there was no doubt in John's mind that the enemy contacts were aiming for Washington, intent on doing more damage to the already burning city.

"Heads up people we've got incoming," he said into the squadron command frequency, with Colonel Dalby vaporised he was now the ranking officer, making squadron command his. "There coming down from orbit, from the size I'd say their fighters and bombers or troop transports."

"Oh man what the hell is going on here," one of the other pilots said. "First energy bolts come from somewhere above the sky, now these fighters are coming down. It's like something out of War of the Worlds or Independence Day."

"It certainly seems that way," Sheppard agreed looking at his screen again. "Okay here they come guys, weapons free. Blast them to hell when ready."

"If we can hurt them," another pilot commented a moment before numerous twin bolts of golden light came shooting at them from above. Immediately all the pilots took evasive action to avoid the deadly rain of energy blasts, amazingly none of them were hit by the bolts of superheated plasma.

Then the alien fighters appeared. To the airmen's eyes the machines were a strange design, a vaguely oval central hull from which spouted two wings that were swept forward giving a bat-wing style, also mounted on each wing was a single weapon. They were constructed of a silver-grey metal and didn't have any visible engines of any kind, so how they moved was a mystery. A mystery that no one had time to dwell upon as the alien fighters opened fire on them again, golden bolts of energy shooting from their cannons, towards the remaining F-16's.

Jinking his fighter wildly John Sheppard avoided the twin blasts of death aimed at him with ease. The alien energy bolts seemed to be quite easy to dodge, in the same moment he armed his missiles and attempted to target the closest enemy fighter. Somewhat to his surprise he immediately got the solid tone of missile lock on, not questioning his good fortune he fired sending a Sidewinder air-to-air missile streaking at the alien machine. The alien fighter tried to dodge but the missile stuck to its tail like glue and a millisecond later hit its target turning it into a fireball.

Sheppard didn't have time to cheer the victory, even as the fireball cooled and faded, he was already dodging fire from two more of the alien fighters. _Whoever or whatever these guys are they're lousy shots,_ he thought as he easily evaded their energy blasts. An enemy fighter started to stray across his path and wolfishly he grinned and opened up with his Vulcan cannon. High velocity rounds tore through the alien as it shot across his flight path, snapping off the right wing and sending the craft into an uncontrolled spin while spiralling helplessly down towards the ground. Moments later it exploded in the air.

"That's two," he said softly as he locked onto a pair of alien fighters that were banking towards him. "Fox two, fox two," he whispered softly before firing another pair of Sidewinders at the rapidly closing craft. Both fighters took the hits full on and vanished in fireballs. _Four bogies down, you're doing well here, John especially considering fighters aren't your first love,_ he thought remembering that he preferred flying choppers to jet fighters though he was fully qualified on both.

"Little help here please," Lieutenant Malcolm Price one of his squadron mates called and John looked around quick to see an F-16 with two of the alien fighters on its tail trying to nail it with bolts of super-condensed energy. The fighter weaved and dodged but the alien pilots were persistent and kept firing with everything they had attempting to box him in so they could blow Mack to hell.

"I'm coming, Mack," he called swinging his fighter around and locking onto one of the aliens pursuing Mack's fighter. "Fox two," he said unleashing another Sidewinder. The missile shot away and tracked the alien fighter with single minded determination and a second later impacted the machine turning into a fireball, the shockwave knocked the other machine off balance – long enough for John to finish it off with a burst of twenty millimetre shells from his Vulcan Gatling gun.

"Thanks, Sheppard," Mack said.

"Your welcome," John replied before glancing at his HUD and noticing one of the larger alien contacts was approaching. "Hey Mack there's one of those bigger ones at my three o clock. Let's get it."

"Right with you boss."

John grinned and brought his fighter around and shot towards the larger alien craft. It was a different design to the fighters, vaguely pyramidal and unlike the fighters it appeared to have engines as he could see four glowing blue thrusters at the back of the craft. A large turret on the underside seemed to be the crafts only armament.

Grinning slightly at the juicy target the alien craft presented John flicked through his index of available weapons and selected his two Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles or AMRAAM's and targeted the alien ship. Immediately he got the familiar lock on tone in his ear.

"Fox three, fox three," he said before pulling the trigger. The F-16 jolted slightly as the weapons fell away from their under wing nacelle mounts before shooting towards the alien craft.

"Fox three, fox three," Mack echoed firing his own AMRAAM's.

The four missiles shot towards the alien craft and amazingly the turret on its underside rotated and started firing slightly brighter and denser versions of the golden energy bolts the fighters were firing. Through sheer luck one of the golden pulses of energy struck one of the AMRAAM's turning the million dollar weapon into a plume of vaporised metal. The other three missiles struck home and exploded.

It was immediately obvious though that something was wrong as the blast waves flattened out, spreading around the alien ship without harming it. As the light of the explosions faded a shimmering, translucent orange quasi-crystalline looking energy barrier appeared to be enveloping the ship, deflecting the heat and energy of the HE warheads away from the hull of the craft, though it didn't seem to stop the kinetic impact as the craft slewed to the side, knocked off its flight path by the force of impact.

"Fuck me," Mack said. "Those things have shields, now this is like Independence Day."

"Shut up and hit them again," John replied before cursing softly as his HUD informed him that he was out of missile ordinance. _Guess there is only one thing to do_, he thought. "Mack I'm out of missiles. Have you got any left?"

"Sure have boss, two Sidewinders," Mack answered.

"Good I'm going to hit this bastard with my cannon. Fire your missiles at the same time."

"Right with you boss," Mack acknowledged as John pulled the trigger on his stick and sent a sustained barrage of twenty millimetre rounds at the alien ship. The alien's shield still glowing from the force of the AMRAAM's flared, sparked and rippled with distortion waves.

"Fox two, fox two," Mack announced as the alien tried to manoeuvre away. But with the stubborn determination that had so often gotten him into trouble John Sheppard stayed with them, keeping his cannon fire focused on the alien shield which seemed to be getting weaker if the increasing glow and sprays of sparks was anything to go by. Then the Sidewinders came streaking in and detonated against the shield. The shield flared brighter still then winked out of existence allowing the remaining force of the Sidewinders small warheads to hit the hull. The hull buckled inward like tin foil, then tore upon under the continuous volley of cannon fire from Sheppard. A second stream of tracers cut into the alien side as Mack opened up with his own cannon.

For a second the alien ship remained where it was then before their eyes it started spewing sparks and smoke as it began to tumble away. Sheppard stopped firing followed a second later by Mack and watched as the mortally wounded alien bomber tumbled, trailing smoke and flames before suddenly exploding in a violent fireball.

"Yes take that you alien bastard," Mack shouted.

John chuckled slightly and started to open his mouth to suggest they go after one of the other bombers when something struck his fighter from behind and to starboard. Immediately red warning lights appeared on his instrument panel and the plane began vibrating fiercely making him fight for control while also accessing damage. Thrust from his starboard engine was spluttering, the jet engine threatening to flame out, lift was failing both ailerons and flaps on the starboard wing had been seriously damaged putting too much drag and not enough lift on the wing.

Desperately he tried altering the balance of power between the port and starboard engines to no avail, the fighter was beginning to spin on its vertical axis while plummeting from the sky. The tumble only got worse as the starboard engine gave up the ghost and flamed out.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday," he said into the squadron frequency. "This is sierra-nine-nine-one I am going down, repeat I am going down."

With the ground rocketing towards him at high speed he pulled the lever that released the aircraft canopy which was instantly carried away by the slipstream generated by the fighter's passage through the air. Then taking a deep breath and inwardly saying a quiet prayer he pulled the ring that controlled the ejector seat. Small rockets in the seat fired catapulting seat and pilot clear of the doomed aircraft.

For a moment John Sheppard experienced dreadful disorientation as he tumbled through the air, air that was alive with the strange, dreadful roaring and whooshing sounds of the alien energy bolts as they plummeted down to Earth. Then he was jerked into a more normal posture by the deployment of the ejector seats parachute. Looking up he saw the alien fighter that must have just shot his plane down disintegrate under a stream of cannon fire from Mack's fighter, a moment before Mack swung away and gutted another alien with cannon fire. _Go get them boys,_ he thought watching the remains of his squadron tearing the alien fighter force apart – despite the fact that the aliens seemed to be more manoeuvrable and had more advanced weapons. Whoever the aliens were they obviously didn't know how to use their fighters to their fullest potential, that or they weren't used to attacking someone who both understood the mechanics of air warfare and was capable of fighting back.

Then he couldn't see the chaos of the air battle anymore, loosing it in the smoke cloud rising from the smouldering remains of Washington DC, though they were hard to see through thick veils of dark smoke from the hundreds of fires the bombardment had set off. Strangely no more energy bolts fell on the capital, though from his vantage point John Sheppard could see more of the bolts of golden light striking on the horizon – no doubt the aliens attacking them had shifted their focus to the towns and cities around Washington, seemingly intent on nothing but destruction. _Is this happening everywhere,_ he wondered as his world disappeared replaced by the thick veil of dark smoke, _is the whole planet under attack?_

For what seemed like an eternity – but in reality was only a few seconds – he fell slowly through the rolling blackness of the smoke cloud. Then he emerged into what had to be a scene from hell, where there had once been an elegant city stretching out in every direction there was now nothing but rubble and fire. Almost every building that he could see had been razed to the ground, either by direct hits by the alien weapons or by the shockwaves of the blasts that had flattened or shattered any building that stood in their way. Only a handful of the cities skyscrapers still stood though they were all doing good impressions of chimneys sending thick columns of smoke and orange sparks into the sky. An eerie twilight enveloped the smouldering city, a twilight created by the flickering yellow and orange glow of the fires reflecting off the massive plume of smoke.

It seemed utterly inconceivable to John's mind that in mere minutes Washington could be transformed from a thriving metropolis, the capital of the most powerful nation on Earth, into such a scene of utter devastation and death. But it had happened and he hated to think how many of his fellow Americans lay dead or dying in the rubble. As he stared at the scene of chaos and destruction a cocktail of different emotions stirred within him, horror at the apocalyptic scene, grief for those who had perished, anger and hatred at those responsible for this but above all else a profound, bitter feeling of failure. He was a member of the Armed Services, America's sword and shield; they were supposed to prevent things like this from happening to their country and their people that was their sacred duty.

And they had failed.

He didn't have much time to contemplate the magnitude of their failure, for within seconds he was over Arlington National Cemetery and barely ten metres above that places hallowed ground. Training took over again as he began going through the sequence for a safe parachute landing, something he had practiced and practiced over the years, but which he had never thought he would have to practically use.

John Sheppard hit the ground with a bone jarring thud that ripped the air from his lungs and seemed to jar every bone and muscle in his body. Stars exploded before his eyes from the transmitted impact force. Then he saw nothing beyond red and white fabric as his parachute landed on top of him. For a moment he just sat there gasping rapidly as he fought to get his breath back, before in a quick series of motions releasing his restraints, taking off his helmet and working his way free of the tent that the parachute had become.

After a few seconds of groping around he was clear and emerged into the twilight and immediately felt like he was standing in a blast furnace. A wave of heat from the burning city washed over him, making his nostrils, throat and lungs ache from the temperature of the air, air that was impregnated with the terrible stench of fire and of things burning that were not meant to burn.

Coughing he stood up and surveyed the scene. Eerily the graveyard was undamaged, rows upon rows of white marble tombstones still stood amongst sweet green grass and trees the way they had always done. Arlington seemed to be an island of calm, dignified serenity amid the smouldering chaos Washington had become.

For a moment he contemplated staying where he was and not venturing from this hallowed place into the wreckage of the city. Then his head came up and his shoulders took on a determined set and he began walking towards the closest exit. Even in the midst of this holocaust there were bound to be survivors, survivors who would be trying to either find there way out of the city or helping those who were trapped. He would find them and join forces with them; it was that or just sit here and do nothing in the face of so much death and suffering.

And that was something that John Sheppard refused point blank to do. So eyes tearing from anger, grief and chemical irritation he walked out of Arlington and into hell.

* * *

**Presidential Emergency Bunker**

**That Same Time**

Coughing and spluttering from the dust that filled the air President Henry Hayes picked himself up off the floor. He and his entourage had just entered the high-tech facility when the whole place had rocked as through gripped by multiple earthquakes as the Goa'uld ships rained plasma down upon the city over their heads.

Blinking rapidly and continuing to cough he peered through the gloom. The room was a wreck, a short distance ahead of him there was nothing but rubble. Clearly parts of the bunker had collapsed in the bombardment. A few pale emergency lights illuminated the dusty atmosphere, providing just enough light to see that where the main room had been there was now nothing but debris. The bunker would be no use to them now.

"Mr President," a familiar voice said from behind him. Hayes spun around to find himself face to face with General's Hammond and Maynard. Neither looked to be in a very good way, they were both covered with dust and grime and Hammond had a nasty cut just above his left eyebrow.

"Are you alright, Mr President," General Maynard asked looking worriedly at his commander and chief, Hayes looked very rumpled and dishevelled from being slammed to the floor by the devastating shockwaves from far above their heads.

"I'm fine general, a little shaken but that's all," Hayes answered before looking at his old friend in concern. "Are you alright, George?"

"I'm fine, Mr President," Hammond replied. "It only a small cut, just looks worse than that as all head wounds do."

"Still we should get that seen to as soon as possible."

"There are going to be more needy people than myself," Hammond replied. "That bombardment is bound to have razed most if not all of the city to the ground. There's going to be a lot of dead or injured people up there."

"Believe me I am all to aware of that," Hayes answered feeling a tightness in his chest at the knowledge that thousands of his fellow Americans were already dead or injured and many more would be dying right now. All the SGC mission reports he'd read indicated that the Goa'uld would not stop their bombardment until either a) Earth was glassed, b) they offered total unconditional surrender, or c) the Goa'uld fleet was blasted out of orbit by someone or something. Shaking off the despair that threatened to fall on him like a smothering blanket he focused his attention on their current situation. There would be time to mourn the dead later.

"Well then gentlemen," he said. "It doesn't look like this bunker is going to be any good to us now," as he spoke another shockwave rippled through the bunker as something exploded high above triggering an avalanche of dust, "we need to find some other place to go."

"There is a secondary emergency bunker," General Maynard said. "Its not completely finished yet but we designed it with alien attack from space in mind."

Hayes raised an eyebrow, this was news to him. It hadn't been in any of the reports on the Stargate Programme that he had read. Or at least not one of the reports he'd read yet as there were a lot of them. "Where is this secondary bunker," he asked.

"Its about four miles west of here far outside the city limits, Mr President," Maynard answered.

"Four miles outside the western edge of the city," Hayes repeated. "How are we supposed to get there quickly general? We certainly cannot drive there."

"There is away, Mr President," Hammond answered. "A way we can get there from here, please come this way."

Hayes raised an eyebrow but followed as George Hammond led him away from the wreckage of the main control room to somewhere else in the maze of concrete corridors and chambers that was the emergency presidential bunker. It was not an easy trek debris was everywhere ranging from small chips and blocks of shattered concrete to metal girders and broken conduits that covered the floor with a serpent's nest of cables.

It took nearly five minutes of walking, stumbling and scrambling through the half caved in corridors to reach there destination. All three men were tired and dirty by the time they entered a small nearly featureless room. The only thing present in the room was an obelisk seemingly made out of stone and engraved with Nordic style swirling patterns. Near the top of the obelisk an orange crystal sat proudly, standing out against the dull brown of the stone.

Hayes raised an eyebrow. "This is the way to the new bunker," he asked not recognising the obelisk for what it was to him it seemed to be nothing but an ornately carved stone obelisk.

"That's right, Mr President," Hammond replied. "This was part of a little gift from Thor; it will get us where we want to go. Both the Asgard and the Tok'ra have been most kind in helping us build the bunker."

"It's a transporter of some sort," Hayes asked.

"Yes, it's similar to the ones the Asgard use on some of the Protected Planets to guard the Stargate," Hammond answered before reaching up and pressing the crystal making the disc like crystal light up. For a moment they could hear nothing but an increasing electronic sounding humming coming from the obelisk, humming that was the only clue that it was a technological device and not a decorative object.

The humming sound reached an almost teeth chattering pitch then a fan-like beam of brilliant silver-white light erupted from the crystal and enveloped all three men. When the light faded they still appeared to be facing the stone obelisk but the room around them had changed. Instead of cracked concrete walls they were in a room whose walls looked like they were made of spun glass and the floor beneath them was just the same though it was smoother than the rough look of the walls.

Hayes looked around in surprise. "How did you build this," he asked looking at the _alien_ design of the walls and floor, all of which had a crystalline look to them.

"We didn't," Maynard answered. "We used Tok'ra tunnel crystals to form all the corridors, chambers and levels of the bunker. It was much more efficient than doing it the old fashioned way with explosives and tunnel boring machines. Plus it let us work without arousing suspicion from anyone."

"What about ventilation shafts surely they get attention," Hayes pointed out knowing that even Cheyenne Mountain home to both NORAD and Stargate Command had ventilation shafts – though they could be sealed if the need arouse.

"There aren't any, Mr President," Maynard replied sounding proud. "The whole base is completely self contained with artificial life support like on a starship. The only thing we need from the surface is food, everything else including power is generated right here in the base."

"Impressive and the Tok'ra let you have some of their crystals? It must have taken a lot of them to grow this base."

"Just one case of tunnel crystals," Hammond answered. "And the Tok'ra let us have them a few months before the alliance broke up, sort of as a thank you for saving them from being wiped out."

"I see," Hayes replied knowing about the alliance that once existed between Earth and Tok'ra, but which broke up after the destruction of the Alpha Site by Anubis.

"The control room is this way, Mr President," Maynard said and started walking. Hayes and Hammond followed him, Hayes curiously looking around at the base and its crystalline structures. If he hadn't known they were still on Earth he would have thought they'd been transported to some real life version of the planet Krypton. Seeing Human beings walking around a place that was obviously built with alien technology was somewhat disconcerting though he had to admit it was a lot nicer to look at than bare concrete walls.

In a few moments they reached the control room which was a larger version of the rooms that the Tok'ra used as council meeting chambers on their own bases. In addition to being larger it was also laid out on a series of tiers. Earth technology was very much in evidence in the room with consoles like those on the _Prometheus_ present everywhere and the three massive plasma screens that dominated the far wall and looking very out of place against the greyish-blue of the crystal.

The centre screen immediately grabbed Hayes attention, it showed a graphic of Earth surrounded by thirty pyramid shaped icons and one large hexagonal icon. He guessed that they represented the Goa'uld fleet in orbit.

"I thought all our satellites were destroyed," he said.

"They were," Maynard answered. "We're getting this data from cloaked sensor satellites Thor deployed in orbit the last time his ship passed through here."

"Pity he couldn't have given us some weapons as well."

"Knowing Thor he probably wanted to," Hammond said. "He did give us the pulse cannon mounted on the _Prometheus_ after all, but the Asgard High Council has a thing about giving away technology that could be used against them, plus doing anything overtly would endanger the Protected Planets Treaty."

"I see," Hayes replied just as Major Davis approached from one of the consoles, looking angry and sad. "What's our status major," he asked.

"Mr President the Goa'uld are bombarding multiple cities all over the planet," Davis reported. "In Asia the cities of Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo and Singapore have been completely razed to the ground by orbital bombardment. In Russia St Petersburg and Vladivostok are gone and Moscow is under heavy attack as we speak. Europe its even worse Warsaw, Strasbourg, Berlin, Dresden and Rome are all gone, with London, Paris, Marseilles and Madrid being bombarded as we speak."

"My God," Hayes said softly thinking of all the millions who would be dead or dying across the globe, none of them even seeing the faces of those who were killing them. "And here," he asked.

"Ourselves and Canada are bearing the worst of the bombardment, Mr President," Davis answered. "Washington, New York, Boston, Ontario, Ottawa, Edmonton and Halifax have been more of less obliterated, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Miami and St Louis are currently under bombardment from space. On the west coast we've got Alkesh and Gliders bombing both Los Angeles and San Francisco. And to make matters worse we're picking up rumblings from the San Andreas Fault, the explosions in Los Angeles and San Francisco must be destabilising it."

Davis paused to take a breath. "If SG-1 doesn't show up soon, Mr President there isn't going to be much of a world left to save," he continued. "Some of the Goa'uld ships are moving to the Southern hemisphere its only a matter of time before they start hitting countries there as well. At the current intensity we estimate the total destruction of civilisation on Earth within the next twelve hours."

"Is there anything else we can do," Hayes asked dismayed at the news and feeling a profound sense of guilt for what was happening. It had been the US who'd opened the Stargate after it was unburied; they ultimately bore the responsibility for this attack as if they had left the damned thing well enough alone the Goa'uld would still believe Earth lost. _And there grip on power across the galaxy would still be iron tight,_ he thought.

"The SGC did broadcast a subspace distress signal before the Goa'uld destroyed the transmitter on the top of Cheyenne Mountain," Davis said. "Its possible that the Asgard might hear it and come to our aid, other than that Mr President all we can do is hope and prey."

"Major," a voice called out from down at the consoles, Davis turned to look at the technician as the young woman spoke again. "The Asgard sensors are picking up a ship in hyperspace approaching this system, it's a Goa'uld cargo ship but its going far faster than it should be."

"SG-1?" Hayes asked.

"We can but hope, Mr President," Hammond said. "I don't know how they could have made a cargo ship go so fast, unless Jack somehow modified it from the Ancient knowledge in his brain. He did similar things that last time that happened."

"We have to hope that its them then, and that they have been successful," Hayes replied. "Major Davis has there been any news on the Vice President?"

"Negative, sir," Davis answered. "We haven't heard anything, we don't even know if he was able to get out of Washington before the bombardment started. Doctor Weir hasn't reported his arrival at the SGC, though our communications with them are somewhat sporadic at the moment due to the interference in the atmosphere from Goa'uld weapons fire. The last report we got indicated that the Goa'uld have established a wormhole from off world but are not attempting to breach the iris."

"That's a standard Goa'uld tactic, Mr President," Hammond added. "Dial in to prevent escape through the Stargate."

"Makes sense," Hayes said seeing the tactical sense of that, especially from the Goa'uld point of view, especially with regards to Earth. The last thing Anubis or the System Lords wanted was for survivors to escape Earth through the gate and possibly get in contact with the Asgard.

"Mr President the Goa'uld cargo ship has come out of hyperspace in low orbit over Antarctica," the console operator who'd spoken to Davis earlier reported. "Cargo ship has begun descending into the atmosphere."

"Any reaction from the Goa'uld," General Maynard asked.

"Yes, a large number of gliders and Alkesh have broken away from the armada and are heading for the southern pole. Anubis' command ship is also moving into a higher orbit, it's likely that it's going to head for Antarctica as well."

"They've found something," Hammond said softly. "And Anubis knows it."

"Where is the _Prometheus_ at the moment," Hayes asked.

"Still at Area 51, sir," Davis replied. "She'd have done no good against a Goa'uld armada this size."

"Until now that is," Maynard said. "Try and contact Area 51, have them launch her and tell Colonel Pendergast to protect SG-1's cargo ship at all costs."

"Yes sir."

* * *

**Goa'uld Cargo Ship**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Tension hung like a thick, oppressive fog in the atmosphere of the modified cargo ship as they shot through hyperspace at almost Asgard speeds towards Earth. Everyone on board was well aware of the fact that they could be running out of time to protect Earth from Anubis, well everyone except possibly Jack O'Neill – who for his part was busy in the back doing something to the transport rings and was seemingly completely oblivious to the rest of the world.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity it was Bra'tac who broke the silence. "We're approaching Earth's solar system," he said from the pilot's seat. "But we maybe to late, sensors are picking up an armada of Goa'uld ships in orbit above Earth."

"Confirmed," Teal'c added from the co-pilots seat. "They appear to be in arrayed into a planetary bombardment formation."

"Can you tell if they're firing, Teal'c," Major Samantha Carter – now acting commander of SG-1 now that Colonel O'Neill's mind was being overrun by the knowledge of the Ancients, the most powerful race ever to inhabit the galaxy – asked anxiously.

"I am afraid I cannot tell, Major Carter," Teal'c answered. Behind the big dark-skinned Jaffa Sam exchanged a concerned look with Doctor Daniel Jackson, though neither voiced the fear that they both felt; the fear that the Goa'uld could already be in the process of systematically eradicating all Human life on Earth.

"We are now crossing into Earth's solar system," Teal'c continued.

"We'll have to come out of hyperspace very close to the planet if we're to avoid Anubis blowing us out of the sky," Sam said. "Low orbit would be best."

"That's not going to give us a lot of time to stop," Daniel pointed out knowing full well that a ship exiting hyperspace had an awful lot of inertial force behind it. Emerging in low orbit they would be hard pressed to stop before they slammed into the planets surface. Though he knew they had no choice but to take the risk, if they emerged at the normal distance from the planet then they would have to run a gauntlet of Goa'uld warships, fighters and bombers before entering orbit. A gauntlet that they would never survive, especially as the cargo ships shields were nowhere near powerful enough to withstand a full salvo of plasma blasts, let along a salvo from Anubis command ship.

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c agreed as he adjusted course slightly to bring them out of hyperspace over Earth's southern polar region.

For a moment silence once again descended on the cargo ships cockpit area, moments seemingly stretching into eternity as the cargo ship ate through the last few light minutes between them and Earth. Finally the control station in front of Teal'c gave a crystalline sounding bleep as they reached there emergence point, with startling suddenness the modified hyperdrive shut down and they emerged in normal space.

Earth dominated space ahead of them, specifically the 5.4 million square mile mass of Earth's fifth largest continent, Antarctica. The pristine white surface was approaching worryingly fast, as the cargo ship plunged towards the ice bound continent like a meteor.

"Hadn't we better pull up," Daniel asked worriedly as around them the cargo ship vibrated fiercely from atmospheric turbulence and the inertial stress of fighting both hyperspace inertia and the pull of Earth's gravity.

"I am attempting to do so," Teal'c replied as the massive ice sheet loomed ever closer. They were only seconds away from plunging into the surface an occurrence that would mean there deaths and shortly the virtual extinction of the Tau'ri as a people at the hands of one of the most vicious tyrants ever spawned by the Goa'uld.

Moments before impact Teal'c won his battle with the controls and was able to bring the cargo ship into level flight, kicking up a small storm of loose snow from the surface of the ice sheet in the process as the wash from the antigrav thrusters slammed into the ice. Behind him Sam and Daniel both emitted soft sighs of relief, a moment before Jack O'Neill came purposefully forward and put a hand on the big Jaffa's shoulder.

Teal'c looked up at the touch and read the silent wish in Jack's eyes, without speaking he stood up and left the pilots seat, yielding control to Jack. Without speaking, knowing he would not be understood by those around him, Jack began guiding the transport across the ice sheet towards a specific point. In mere seconds they reached their destination, a mile below them buried beneath millions of year's worth of ice was the outpost that would save Earth. Quietly Jack pressed one of the cargo ships controls remotely accessing the ring transport system, setting the modifications he had made into motion.

* * *

On the underside of the cargo ship, the doors that normally covered its set of transport rings opened. Instead of deploying the rings however a brilliant energy beam erupted and struck the ice, instantly ice began dissolving subliming straight into water vapour under the force of the beam.

The beam kept up its assault, steadily melting and vaporising its way through an ice sheet that over the millions of years of its existence grown to a depth of just over a mile. In seconds though the beam breached the pocket in the ice that it had been searching for and shut down, leaving a perfectly straight shaft bored right through the primordial Antarctic ice.

* * *

Had he still been his normal, human self Jack O'Neill would have smiled and given a smart quip as the modified transmission beam completed its work. But he wasn't, instead he just stood up and moved aft to the ring platform and quickly began removing the naquada generators and other components he'd added that had turned the transmission beam into a powerful if somewhat crude laser.

"Anubis can't have missed that display," Daniel said softly.

"You are correct," Bra'tac confirmed. "Sensors are picking up a large number of Gliders and Alkesh on approach, they will be here shortly."

Sam frowned worriedly, that was not good news though she supposed it was only to be expected what with Earth under attack from the Goa'uld. She glanced back at Jack to see him finish off removing the adjustments he had made to the rings.

"Of course," she said softly. "We can get down to the lost city via the transport rings."

"Makes sense it was built by the Ancients so there is bound to be a set of rings down there somewhere," Daniel agreed moving to stand in the centre of the ring platform.

"The transmission beam just couldn't penetrate a mile of ice," Sam agreed as she and Teal'c joined him. After a second Jack did as well, holding the satchel that contained the Ancient power source that they had recovered from the outpost on Proclarush Taonas closely. "Hit it," Sam said to Bra'tac.

"Good luck," Bra'tac replied before remotely activating the ring transporter.

Sam smiled back at Bra'tac as the rings rose from their recess in the deck and surrounded her and the rest of SG-1. Then the interior of the cargo ship vanished in a blaze of white light, when it faded and the rings retracted they were no longer aboard the cargo ship. Instead they were standing in a dark cavern that was surprisingly warm for all that it was made of ice.

Calmly Sam, Teal'c and Daniel turned on the flash lights attached to their P90 submachine guns and scanned the room. Ahead of them were metal walls and screens patterned in an almost eastern style. Boldly Jack walked up to the walls and put his hand on the nearest pillar.

"Dormada," he said.

"Asleep," Daniel translated for Sam and Teal'c since he was the only one of them who actually understood Ancient. As he spoke a strange humming sound filled the air coming from somewhere ahead of them.

Calmly Jack led the way and they found themselves in a large vaulted chamber. In the centre of which was a raised dais on which sat another of the control chairs that Jack had used on Taonas. Unfortunately standing between them and the chair was the robed form of Anubis.

"_**You are too late,"**_ Anubis said gloatingly in his eerie voice. _**"The power of the Ancients is mine, as is your world. Surrender now and I shall be merciful."**_ Sam was about to tell Anubis to go to hell when Jack stepped forward, gave a small mocking smile, and walked right through the holographic projection of Anubis.

"_**Fools,"**_ Anubis said before vanishing with all the fuss of a burst soap bubble. No one spoke as Jack walked forward and squatted down at the edge of the dais and held a hand over a seemingly ordinary section of floor.

As on Taonas a small secular section rose up and Jack removed the top and then extracted the crystalline power source, though unlike the one in the satchel that glowed with a yellow-orange light this one was a dark brown almost black. Putting the obviously depleted power source aside, Jack took the one from Taonas out of the satchel and inserted it into the slot. With a faint humming sound the crystal lowered and disappeared beneath the surface of the dais.

Apparently satisfied Jack stood back up, stepped up onto the dais and sat down on the throne like control chair. Immediately the dais and the headrest of the chair lit up with a blue light and the chair design shifted into an arrangement that looked almost like a dentist's chair. The rest of SG-1 could see Jack's hands moving on the interface pads at the ends of the chair and from all around came the sound of systems powering up.

It was at that moment that Sam's radio crackled to life. "Major Carter this is Bra'tac," Bra'tac's voice said from the small grill on the radio, his voice was back-dropped by the sound of explosions. "I am under attack from multiple Gliders; I have to abandon my position."

"Understood, Bra'tac," Sam replied. "Get out of there."

As she spoke there was a loud bang over the radio. "Shields are failing, hull integrity badly compromised," Bra'tac said his voice washing with static before abruptly cutting off.

A moment later they heard the sound of the ring transporter activating, prompting Sam and Teal'c to run back outside expecting company in the form of Jaffa or Kull Warriors to be beaming down. To their surprise and relief Bra'tac was standing on the platform looking a little worse for ware, his aged features covered with soot, but alive.

Bra'tac stepped off the platform and started towards them just as a massive explosion came from above, the shockwave rocking the facility like a massive earthquake and causing small flakes of ice to fall from the ceiling.

"We thought we'd lost you," Sam said in relief.

"I was able to get to the ring transporter before the cargo ship was destroyed," Bra'tac answered as he reached them. "Now that the path to the ring platform is clear we should expect Anubis to begin transporting down Kull Warrior assault troops immediately."

Sam nodded in agreement, they were prepared for that. With a nod to Teal'c she armed the life force disruptor attached to the side of her P-90 and Teal'c did the same. Falling back to the entrance to the chamber they took up positions pointing their weapons at that ring platform, and waited for the dreaded, deadly drone warriors of Anubis to begin appearing to try and take this facility from them.

* * *

**Anubis Command Ship**

**That Same Time**

"We are in position my lord," Herak reported to his God.

"_**Excellent, begin transporting Kull Warriors down to the Ancient facility we need to take it from the Tau'ri before they get the weapons operational,"**_ Anubis replied from where he stood near the viewport.

"Yes my lord," Herak replied before turning back to his console and relaying the command to elsewhere on the massive ship. A small smile played at the corner of his lips as he imagined the terror the Tau'ri would feel as the last hope for their world was snatched away from them at the points of the Kull Warriors deadly plasma repeaters.

As another Jaffa elsewhere on the ship acknowledged the order, Herak saw a change in the ships sensor readings. A hyperspace window was opening thirty thousand kilometres off the ships port side. "My lord sensors are picking up a hyperspace window opening thirty thousand kilometres to port," he reported. "Multiple ships emerging, they are Asgard."

"_**What,"**_ Anubis growled as the viewport shimmered as it switched to view screen mode, and showed five Asgard O'Neill-class battleships and twelve older but still formidable Beliskner-class class battlecruisers emerging from hyperspace. Silence rang through the ships of the fleet, even with the power of their God behind them many were reluctant to take on those whom they had been in fear of for ten thousand years.

"My lord we are being hailed by the lead ship," Herak reported as Anubis returned to his pel'tac throne.

"_**Put the message through,"**_ Anubis instructed a moment before the view changed to show one of the grey skinned black eyed aliens sitting in a throne-like chair back dropped by the glowing column of energy that was so common on an Asgard bridge.

"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet," the Asgard said. "Your attack on this planet is a violation of the Protected Planets Treaty. You are hereby ordered to stand down and surrender your vessels or we will open fire."

"_**I think not,"**_ Anubis replied. _**"The last time we fought each other, Thor my ships defeated you. It is you who will surrender or face my wrath."**_

"The vessels you are facing are far superior to the one I commanded at Adara," Thor answered. "And you should be aware that another fleet under Freyr's command is right now poised to destroy key facilities on your throne world and the facility on Tartarus where you breed your abominations. If you do not comply with the will of the Asgard High Council then all will be destroyed, you have thirty seconds to consider your options."

With that Thor disappeared from the screen as contact with his ship was broken, the tactical display appeared in his place showing the Asgard fleet deploying into a battle formation facing his command ship. And Anubis felt a twinge of fear, for he knew that as strong as the shields of his fleet were they were not powerful enough to withstand a protracted engagement with so many Asgard ships.

"My lord the Asgard ships are powering up their weapons systems," Herak reported, "they are locking onto this ship and our escorts."

"_**Very well they wish a fight, how foolish of them, target main weapons on the leading Asgard ship and fire. Have the rest of the fleet break off planetary bombardment and join us in this engagement. We can resume the bombardment once the Asgard are defeated."**_

"Yes my lord."

* * *

For a few moments the fleet of Asgard warships and Anubis' command mothership faced off against each other. Then the motherships main cannons burst into life, sending a blast from the particle beam weapon that had earlier destroyed the International Space Station into the forward shields of the leading O'Neill-class battleship. The forward shield of Thor's ship flashed a brilliant silver-blue as it absorbed the energy of the beam and had anyone been watching they would have seen the mighty Asgard ship visibly shudder slightly with the kinetic force of the attack.

Ha'tak's began firing from all sides capital scale plasma cannons slamming powerful whitish gold energy into the powerful Asgard shields of the O'Neill's, Beliskner's broke formation to the flanks of the Goa'uld fleet before opening fire; their upgraded main cannons firing bolt after bolt into the shields of the closest tetrahedral-shaped ships. Charged particle bolts met Goa'uld energy shields, punched through and cut deep into the heavy armour covering the hulls of the enemy vessels.

A second salvo followed the first shredding what was left of the Ha'tak's shields ploughing into six of the golden ships blowing them apart, breaking into pairs the Asgard cruisers began bracketing the Goa'uld ships as the heavier O'Neill battleships began moving into position around the command mothership.

As the second stream of fire began emitting from the huge command ship the flagship of the Asgard fleet fired back. A brilliant blue-white energy pulse erupted from the main cannon at the centre of the hammerhead-shaped forward section and slammed into the shields of Anubis' own vessel. Simultaneously the two O'Neill's flanking Thor's ship began firing smaller and faster firing blasts from their own main cannons making the shields on Anubis' ship flare and ripple as they dispersed the energy of the blasts and sent much of the fire sleeting back out into space.

Anubis fired again, slamming another heavy particle beam into the shields of the forward O'Neill while firing heavy salvos of plasma blasts at both flanking ships setting the shields on all three ships aglow. Despite the intense battering their shields were taking from Anubis' Ancient-design based weapons the three Asgard ships simply took the fire and continued sending waves of energy back the multiple particle cannon arrays all along their hammerheads lighting up again and again.

The rest of the Asgard forces moved to engage the Ha'tak's that were approaching to assist their God, three more Ha'tak's withered and died under the concentrated fire of top of the line cruisers. However out numbered as they were the Asgard could not count on their advanced technology to keep them safe from the overwhelming firepower of the assembled hybrid ships.

* * *

**Thor's Flagship**

Supreme Commander Thor held on to the armrests of his command throne as the _Jack O'Neill_ shuddered under fire from Anubis main weapon. Sensors confirmed that the weapon was a proton-based particle beam and was surprisingly powerful and was proving damaging to the shields. Answering fire from the forward cannons simply ablated across Anubis' shields slowly but surely weakening them, he had been perturbed to find that even with three O'Neill's he was unable to destroy the command ship as quickly and efficiently as they once had.

"Damage report," he ordered.

"Forward shields are at ninety percent, supreme commander," one of the bridge crew reported as the ship shuddered again.

"Continuing firing all forward weapons," Thor instructed "status of enemy vessel?"

"Goa'uld shields are holding at seventy percent effectiveness, supreme commander," came the response from sensors. "The _Samantha Carter_ and _Teal'c _are concentrating fire to the left and right sides of our own fire damage are mounting in those sectors."

"Have the _Jonas Quinn_ and the _Davis_ begin taking out the escorts, all other ships continue with predetermined battle plans."

"Yes Commander."

Two O'Neill's broke off from the formation and began systematically destroying the Ha'tak's surrounding the Command ship a single barrage of fire from the forward batteries of each Asgard vessel was enough to remove the first two from the upper left sector of the battlefield. A massive flash of light appeared close by as another ship dropped into the battlefield from a close range hyperspace jump.

The newcomer loosed a trio of rapid blue/white cannon shots from the front of their ship the bolts slamming into the weakened shields of a Ha'tak and blowing through an entire section of the superstructure turning it into shrapnel. Half a dozen missiles followed through the gaps in the shielding and into the depths of the Pyramid detonating once they had buried into the hull.

Multiple gigatons of nuclear energy vaporised the Goa'uld ship in a flash of light, little remained of the once proud vessel serving their god, the _Prometheus_ accelerated through the debris field loosing railgun fire and nuclear missiles into the ships already disabled or crippled by the Asgard vessels.

"This is _Prometheus_ to Asgard Ship _Jack O'Neill_, we're here. It's not much but we're here."

"This is Thor, your appearance was unanticipated but welcome."

"Earth is our world, we need to defend it one way or another. We'll have your back as much as we can, that first energy weapon burst all but fried our power distribution and drained our power systems."

"Understood, continue dispatching the more damaged ships as you can."

"Will do, good luck Commander."

The tiny human ship accelerated away from cover of the O'Neill's decapitating another Ha'tak along the way as the ship's entire upper third was destroyed by a point blank nuclear detonation, the blast wave brushing across the _Prometheus_' shields ineffectually as the powerful Asgard technology shrugged off the radiation and blast wave.

Aboard the _Jack O'Neill_ the Asgard crew were shaken again as a blast from Anubis' powerful ship bled through their weakening shields slightly scorching the hull armour, return fire from all three O'Neill's pummelled the Goa'uld's shields even as another particle beam breached a weakened shield segment to cut deep into the _Jack O'Neill's_ port flank.

"Commander bow shield three has failed we have sustained damage to the port wing assembly weapons there have dropped to seventy percent capacity and outer hull integrity is compromised," engineering reported to Thor. "Automatic systems are redirecting power to restore shield integrity."

"Status of enemy flagship?" Thor ordered as plasma blasts from Anubis pounded the _Jack O'Neill's_ faltering forward shields.

"The shields on the command ship are down to forty percent but are regenerating faster than before, we believe that the Goa'uld have shut down their hyperdrive and transferred the power to their shields," sensors reported. "However our sensors are also picking up a powerful energy surge gathering near the southern pole of the planet."

"What kind of energy surge?" Thor asked though he had a strong suspicion of what it was, he knew what the Ancients had left there when they went to the Pegasus Irregular Galaxy.

"Computer analysis confirms the energy spectrum is consistent with zero point energy, specifically that of an Alteran Zero Point Module."

Had he been capable of it Thor would have smiled, as he knew what that meant; Stargate Command had found the Ancient outpost buried beneath the ice, and had acquired an active Zero Point Module from somewhere. _This must be why Anubis decided to break the Protected Planets Treaty,_ he thought as another particle beam hit shook his ship making sparks shoot out of some panels around the bridge as energy from overtaxed shields back lashed through the ships systems, _he somehow found out about the outpost and wants to stop the Tau'ri from getting their hands on the weapons and power of the Ancients._

The sensors chimed for attention. "Supreme Commander energy readings from the planet have changed," sensors reported. "We are picking up a weapons system powering up and targeting the Goa'uld fleet. Energy signature matches the database records of Alteran drone weapons."

Thor turned his attention to the holographic tactical display floating in front of him, which showed the fleet of Goa'uld vessels engaged against his forces. Three more of the Ha'tak class motherships had already been destroyed, reduced to scrap metal floating in orbit of Earth, two more were showing heavy shield damage. However he was dismayed to see two of his own ships had been crippled and then destroyed by the Ha'tak's, four more of the Beliskner-class cruisers would loose shields at any moment.

A single O'Neill had been targeted by no less than nine Goa'uld ships including the rear side weapons of the massive command ship, its shields flaring into nothingness it began to take hit after hit from the heavier weapons of the Jaffa manned ships. Weapons turrets were blown off as one wing was chewed into an unrecognisable shape, the engines failing the O'Neill could only sit there as a final massive bolt hit it head on from the Command ship's main particle weapon, cleaving the once proud warship in two to be slowly torn apart by secondary explosions as weapons systems blew.

Thor looked on at the destruction of another of their very few battleships the loss of the _Jonas Quinn _would be remembered by both Asgard and human alike once the battle was over. It was at that moment of introspection that he saw them, a dense stream of sensor contacts rising from near Earth's southern pole towards the Goa'uld fleet. The stream split into dozens of smaller streams destroying the smaller fighters and Alkesh nearing Earth's surface before reaching into the sky and heading for the Ha'tak's.

In the very middle the vertical column reached even higher, a large stream of yellow squid shaped weapons remained on course for Anubis, Thor watched as the barrage of Ancient designed and built weapons began to tear into the Goa'uld armada with Anubis' command ship the bull's eye for the Tau'ri's newly acquired weapon. _Goodbye, Anubis, _was his only thought.

* * *

**Anubis Command Ship**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Anubis stumbled slightly as return fire from Supreme Commander Thor's battle group continued slamming into the shields of his great and powerful flagship, the impact of dozens of blue-white bolts sending a violent vibration through the deck beneath him. This confrontation with the Asgard was not going as well he would have liked, already numerous of his elite Ha'tak's had been destroyed or seriously damaged, even with the very satisfying death of some of the little grey abominations he could only watch as his ships were annihilated only inflicting shield damage to the remainder of the Asgard fleet ships.

"_**Herak recall all Glider and Alkesh squadrons from the planet. Have them begin strafing runs on the Asgard fleet. And launch all reserve squadrons."**_

"Yes my lord," Herak answered and worked at the console to relay the command to the other ships and the forces still attacking Earth and encountering fierce resistance from Tau'ri forces. The arrival of the Tau'ri ship had led to the losses of at least two more of his lord's ships in as many minutes, their damnable missiles simply blowing apart the Ha'tak's once they had slipped through the damaged shields.

As he finished giving the orders a change in sensor readings caught his attention, something was rising from the southern pole of the planet. He sent an interrogative command to the sensors just as a fresh salvo of energy bolts from the Asgard shook the ship his own weapons answered back finally scoring hits on the thick armoured hull of another of the massive Asgard battleships causing power outages to appear across one side of the vessel.

The sensor results came back revealing the incoming object was in fact a stream of thousands of small projectiles that were giving off an unusual energy signature. Whatever they were they were coming right for the ship, as he watched the stream split up into dozens of smaller streams, most of which veered away though the largest stream continued on course for the ship.

Understanding came these projectiles were the weapons that his God had been concerned about. They seemed insignificant but Herak knew better than to be fooled by appearances. He was just opening his mouth to report the development to Lord Anubis when the stream reached the ship.

And the entire vessel resounded to a powerful explosion.

Herak stumbled and had to grab onto the edge of the console for support as the ship began shaking fiercely as more and more projectiles came in, tearing section after section of the command ship apart. To his disbelief the weapons were passing right through their shields as if they did not exist. On the screen Glider and Alkesh squadrons were annihilated as the column split into smaller and smaller groups, the larger branches streaming AROUND the Asgard and Earth ships and punching into the completely unharmed ships of Anubis.

"Our shields are of no use," he reported having to shout over the increasing roar of internal detonations, the largest concentration of the objects we're ripping through the armour and bulkheads as easily as the shields.

Anubis for his part stood before the viewport in horrified understanding, the Tau'ri had the weapons of the Ancients. Weapons that were ripping right through even his best shields as if they did not exist and which were steadily tearing the ship apart. Through the viewport he saw several of the glowing yellow squid-like projectiles go right through a Ha'tak which instantly dissolved into energised flotsam as its reactors breached. Another Ha'tak followed it a second later, just as a stream altered course and came right for the pel'tac of his ship.

_**"NOOO,"**_ he screamed in horror and rage, a second before the projectiles tore through the pel'tac. Anubis felt great pain as the force field cowl that kept his partially ascended form together and allowed him to interact with the corporeal world dissolved, even as he was sucked out into space through the breach in the hull.

Desperately he focused all his power, all his concentration on holding his energy form together. If he dispersed now then he knew he would be subjected to an eternal living death, unable to ever pull himself together again. Had there been air in space he would have sighed in relief as he successfully managed to hold his form together and establish a stable configuration in no danger of dispersal.

Relief turned to horror when a brilliant flash of light and radiation enveloped him, and a ferocious concussion wave struck. _The flagships power core has ruptured,_ he thought in horror as he felt his form being carried along with the subspace concussion wave.

He shot passed the Asgard cruisers even as he desperately tried to stop, but it was no use the inertial force propelling him was to strong. Silently he screamed in horror and rage as he shot away from Earth at low sublight speed. He knew it would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach a planet, let along a planet with a Stargate or a host form he could possess. And while time was not an issue for a being such as himself he knew that in that time the whole galaxy would change as now that they had access to the weapons of the Ancients the Tau'ri would wipe the Goa'uld from existence, there would be no chance of him ever gaining the power that was his right

So telepathically screaming as loudly as he could he shot past the barren rock that was Earth's moon into open space and eternal torment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Thor's Flagship**

**Earth Orbit**

Supreme Commander Thor studied the plumes of cooling, spreading plasma and partially melted debris that was all that remained of the fleet of Goa'uld motherships brought to Earth by Anubis in silent awe. It had been many thousands of years since any member of the Asgard race had seen Alteran weapons in action; he had not even been alive the last time that the Asgard had been treated to such a display of the Ancients incredible firepower. It was obvious from the speed with which the Goa'uld fleet had been wiped from the heavens by the mighty barrage of drone weaponry unleashed by the Tau'ri that the database records of the power of those weapons were not in error. If anything they were understating it – given how easily the drones had bypassed Anubis' advanced shields to tear him and his fleet apart.

"Sensor scans complete, supreme commander," sensors reported completing a check of the spreading debris field that was all that remained of the Goa'uld armada. "Scanners confirm that all Goa'uld vessels and fighters have been destroyed."

"Understood, communications instruct all of our vessels to begin scanning the planet to determine the extent of damage," Thor ordered, he knew it would be high even from orbit it was possible to see the smoke plumes rising from destroyed cities. Casualties would be in the millions – a fact that angered him greatly, though the Goa'uld would pay a price for what Anubis had done here today. It was long past time that the Asgard Fleet reminded the System Lords of the price they could pay for violating or failing to enforce the Protected Planets Treaty. "Sensors scan the Ancient outpost on the planet to determine there status," he continued.

"Yes commander."

"Communications contact Freyr, inform him of what has happened here and instruct him to proceed with the destruction of Anubis throne world shipyards and munitions factories. He is then to proceed to the Kull Warrior facilities on Tartarus and destroy them."

"Yes commander."

"Primary surface scans completed, supreme commander," sensors reported. "Sensors have detected massive damage to multiple cities across the planet, casualties are significant. We are also picking up heavy atmospheric ionisation consistent with magnetosphere disruption caused by the passage of multiple plasma blasts, soot and ashes from the burning cities are rising into the atmosphere and spreading across the upper atmosphere due to influence of the high altitude winds. In addition we are picking up a number of seismic disturbances along a section of the North American continent – it is likely that underlying tectonic fault lines have been destabilised by the concussion of the Goa'uld weapons."

Thor came as close to frowning as an Asgard could. It was fortunate that they had arrived when they did and prevented the Goa'uld from continuing their bombardment – at a considerable cost to themselves in lives and resources, but it was obvious that they had not been quick enough. The damage to Earth would take years to repair – even with his peoples help it would take years to filter all the contaminants out of the atmosphere and there was nothing they could do about a destabilised tectonic fault line. As advanced as it was even Asgard technology had its limits, they could dampen down some of the effects of any earthquakes but they would not be able to stop them completely.

"And the outpost?" he asked.

"Sensors are detecting five life signs, three are Human and two are Jaffa. One of the Human life signs is showing signs of considerable physiological distress."

Thor nodded in a subtle, Asgard fashion. He had a suspicion of what had really happened, who was down there in the outpost and what they had probably had to do to have any chance of finding the hidden facility.

"Transport them up to my chambers," he instructed.

"Yes supreme commander."

* * *

**Ancient Antarctic Outpost**

**That Same Time**

Major Samantha Carter looked worriedly at Colonel Jack O'Neill who lay slumped in the control chair, his eyes closed and his breathing faint. She could barely believe that this was happening, they'd won – Anubis' forces had been defeated, his attack fleet destroyed, but they were paying a terrible price. And that price was Jack O'Neill's life, the Ancient knowledge he'd absorbed from the repository on P3R-439 had already completely overwhelmed him and now it was killing him.

And there was nothing she or any of them could do to stop it.

It was a horrible realisation and brought with it a terrible feeling of helplessness. She was about to loose someone she cared deeply about and had for years now – though both being military they had never been able to act on it. Behind her Teal'c, Bra'tac and Daniel Jackson stood in sombre silence at the foot of the control chairs dais. There was no jubilation at the fact that they'd stopped Anubis, to a soul they knew that they were witnessing the last few minutes of Jack O'Neill's life.

It was at that moment that a brilliant silver-white light enveloped them. The ornate architecture of the outpost dissolved around them and reformed into a chamber on what was clearly an Asgard ship. The techno-Norse style of the décor and the pedestal off to the side covered with control stones made that perfectly clear. A viewport was off to the side showing Earth rotating slowly below the ship, plumes of smoke and ash from the destruction unleashed by the Goa'uld fleet plainly visible even from orbit.

Blinking to clear away the afterimage of the transport beam flash Sam looked around and felt a sudden surge of hope as she recognised that they were on an Asgard vessel. The Asgard had been able to save Jack the last time he had had the knowledge of the Ancients put in his head, maybe they would be able to save him now. It was a long shot as Jack's condition was a lot more advanced this time around but it was a shot worth taking.

Another transporter beam flashed and Thor appeared in the room. "Greetings," Thor said.

"Hello, Thor," Daniel answered. "Good timing, Jack needs your help."

"So I see," Thor replied looking at Colonel O'Neill in concern, though he was no expert when it came to judging a Humans health it was obvious even to him that Jack O'Neill was in a very bad way. "What has brought him to this condition?"

"He looked into a repository of the Ancients," Teal'c informed the little grey alien.

"He was fully aware of what he was doing when he did it," Daniel added. "But it was something that needed to be done; we needed to find the Lost City before Anubis could. Jack saw this as the only way. I know your people helped him the last time this happened, are you able to do the same now?"

"I believe so, Doctor Jackson," Thor replied walking over to the control pedestal and manipulating the stones there. "It should be possible to remove the Ancients knowledge from his mind in time to save his life, however a great deal depends on the level of physiological degeneration he has suffered. We will certainly do the best that we can."

As Thor spoke the ships transporter activated again and Jack's prone form vanished in the familiar flash of silver-white light. "I have transported him to the automated medical bay," Thor explained. "Where his condition will be dealt with by whichever means necessary, he should return shortly."

"Thank you, Thor," Sam said.

"You are welcome, Major Carter," Thor answered. "I only wish that we had arrived here sooner, we may well have been able to dissuade Anubis from violating the Protected Planets Treaty. As it is we will now communicate our displeasure at this incident to the Goa'uld System Lords and remind them of the punishment they can expect if they violate the treaty again.

"As we speak now Freyr is commanding a force of warships dispatched to Anubis throne world and his Kull Warrior production facility on Tartarus. The Asgard High Council has decreed that all key facilities on both worlds be destroyed as punishment for Anubis' attack on Earth."

"He won't like that," Sam commented. "Or he wouldn't if he was still alive."

"He's likely to be, Sam," Daniel replied. "Remember Anubis is a partially ascended being, his physical form so to speak is largely energy. It would probably take a lot more than a ship exploding in his face to destroy him."

"Anubis is an ascended being," Thor asked startled and in a quiet Asgard way quite horrified by the news as he knew that ascended beings were very, very powerful creatures. The powers of an ascended being in the hands of a Goa'uld – especially one as ruthless as Anubis – were a horror that did not bear thinking about.

"Partially ascended," Daniel corrected. "He attempted to ascend but the Ancients recognised him for what he was and stopped him. They sent him back, but not totally. He's sort of stuck between a corporal existence and the energy state of an ascended being. It is likely that he still has some of the powers of an ascended being but he cannot use them, not without breaking the rules. And if he did that then he would incur the wrath of the Ancients."

"If he is partially ascended then why didn't the Ancients destroy him," Bra'tac asked.

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "But one thing I do remember from my time amongst the ascended is that where ascended beings are concerned nothing is ever as easy as you would think."

"Nothing ever is," Sam replied before turning to Thor. "Thor I hate to ask this but we need to know, how bad is the damage to Earth?"

Thor looked as uncomfortable as an Asgard could. "The Goa'uld bombardment has inflicted severe damage across multiple continents," he confirmed sounding upset and angry, upset at the loss of innocent lives, and angry that the Asgard had not been able to get here quickly enough to prevent it.

"Thirty-one cities around the planet have been destroyed or severely damaged," Thor continued. "Our sensors have confirmed massive atmospheric disruption as a result of ionisation caused by the passage of plasma blasts. In addition large amounts of dust and debris have been blown into the stratosphere and are being spread by high altitude winds as we speak."

Sam and Daniel winced and closed their eyes in pain as Thor spoke, both of them knew that the death toll was going to be in the tens of millions, possibly even in hundreds of millions. To top it off the heavy atmospheric ionisation would breed monster storms that would claim yet more lives and the amount of debris blasted into the atmosphere would cause global climatic chaos for years to come, chaos that would spawn yet more pain and misery for millions. Teal'c and Bra'tac put sympathetic hands on their shoulders, both Jaffa had seen many Goa'uld atrocities in their long lives, seen many worlds be eradicated by the Goa'uld, even by those standards this attack was devastating. Earth was perhaps the most densely populated planet in the galaxy – her population measuring in billions, and she and her people had been grievously wounded.

"My people will be able to assist with the clean up of the debris in the atmosphere," Thor continued which prompted the two Tau'ri to open their eyes again. "And we can provide technology to dampen down the worst of the storms."

"Have we been able to establish contact with Earth," Daniel asked.

"I am afraid not," Thor answered. "The subspace transmitter we provided for Stargate Command has been destroyed. Electrical disruptions in the atmosphere are going to make conventional radio communication difficult for some time. The only way we would establish reliable communication would be if we took the ship down into the atmosphere."

"Which would not be a good idea at the moment," Sam replied. "All military assets around the world, from every nation, will be at Defcon One at the moment and most of them have no idea of the existence of the Stargate or that these ships are not the ones that attacked. Any forces that we encountered would be very likely to open fire on us."

"Which is a situation that is best avoided," Thor agreed. While it was highly unlikely that conventional Earth military forces would have weapons capable of damaging let alone penetrating the shields of an Asgard warship but it was still a state of affairs that he would rather avoid.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed in his normal deadpan voice.

"We need to get in touch with Earth though," Sam said. "Thor those cloaked sensor satellites you left here after your last visit, can they carry a subspace databurst transmission?"

Thor considered for a moment. "Yes," he said. "We would have to configure the data processing systems on one of the satellites but it is possible."

"How long would it take," Sam asked.

"About one Earth hour as we would physically have to reconfigure a number of different systems," Thor answered.

"That's too long there has to be another way," Sam said struggling to think, pushing aside the pain and rage for the slaughter inflicted upon her homeworld for awhile. "Where's the nearest Stargate?"

"There is one in the system you refer to as Alpha Centauri," Thor replied. "Its located on the third planet at an old facility built by the Ancients. The Goa'uld have never set foot on the planet in question as ten thousand years ago it was subjected to a large asteroid impact and plunged into an ice age. It's biosphere has since recovered."

"That sounds like our best bet we should be able to dial the SGC from there," Sam replied inwardly excited about the prospect of seeing another Ancient facility, a facility that would hopefully lead them to Atlantis as it was obvious that what was buried beneath the ice of Antarctica wasn't the fabled lost city. The dome in the ice was far to small for it to be anything more than another outpost, like the one on Proclarush Taonas. Though with the damage to Earth it was unlikely they would be able to go to Atlantis anytime soon even if they did find it.

"Very well I will take you there," Thor said. "The remainder of our ships will deploy into a protective formation around Earth."

"Thank you, Thor."

"It is the least we can do given our failure to prevent this attack," Thor answered moving over to the control pedestal and moving some of the control stones around. Immediately a giant holographic screen activated showing the face of one of the Asgard on the ships bridge, to which Thor gave a series of orders in his native language.

The other Asgard acknowledged the orders in their soft and to Humans unintelligible language before signing off, making the holographic screen evaporate into nothingness. A faint flare of sound could be heard through the ship as the powerful hyperdrive system began powering up.

* * *

With silent, effortless grace the _Jack O'Neill_ broke orbit of Earth and headed out into open space. Behind the retreating O'Neill class battleship the surviving ships of the force Thor had brought to confront Anubis began deploying themselves to form a defensive screen around Earth. Though it was unlikely that more Goa'uld forces would show up the Asgard were not going to take any chances.

Ahead of Thor's ship a hyperspace window burst into existence a swirling, crackling vortex of aquamarine light and subspace energy. Quickly the _Jack O'Neill_ accelerated into the maelstrom of the vortex and vanished from normal space, behind her the hyperspace window folded closed leaving behind Earth and its silent, watchful guardians.

* * *

**Anubis Throne World**

**That Same Time**

High in orbit above the world that Anubis had made the very base of his empire space warped and distorted. Multiple hyperspace windows burst into existence startling the small number of elite Ha'tak's left behind to protect the throne world, to a soul the Jaffa onboard immediately thought that there lord was returning early, victorious over the infamous, blasphemous Tau'ri as they had always known he would be.

Delight and relief turned to shock, horror and fear as instead of the expected Ha'tak's Asgard ships emerged from the great rents ripped in the fabric of space by the power of their hyperdrives. It total there were twenty top-of-the-line Asgard warships, six of them O'Neill-class battleships the rest of them Beliskner-class battlecruisers. It was a force that was larger and more powerful than any the Goa'uld had faced in thousands of years, a force that would have even the vilest most ruthless System Lord trembling in fear.

As the last hyperspace window folded closed behind them the Asgard fleet opened up with their main weapons all focusing their fire on the nine Ha'tak's left behind by Anubis. Multiple streams of blue-white charged particle bolts ripped into the Goa'uld vessels, slicing through the thick metal alloy of the hulls to explode inside the ships tearing them apart before their Jaffa crews could power the ship up enough to offer even the most token resistance. Even as the brilliant death explosions of the Ha'tak's cooled and faded the Asgard fleet moved into orbit, their secondary particle pulse weapons arrays rapidly firing at the network of defence platforms, wiping many of the powerful pyramidal satellites out before they could even begin powering up – let alone respond to the surprise attack.

Despite the surprise the inner ring of defence satellites came online and targeted the Asgard before opening fire. Dense whitish-orange blasts of superheated plasma wrapped in gravitic fields shot forth from their weapons arrays – to evaporate in harmless bluish-white flashes of Cherenkov radiation as they encountered the shields of the leading Asgard ships. Undeterred the automated weapons platforms continued firing upon the Asgard – slamming blast after blast into the powerful shields, even as the Asgard finished disposing of the shattered outer defence lines and turned their particle cannons on the remaining platforms. Within moments the inner line of twenty defence platforms disappeared swatted from the sky by the powerful weapons of the Asgard.

With orbital supremacy now firmly established the Asgard fleet began to spread out, individual warships moving to specific points in orbit. All but three ships began descending down through the atmosphere to the Goa'uld facilities below. In mere moments the Asgard ships were hovering only a handful of kilometres above the surface of the planet, their appearance sending waves of terror through the legions of Jaffa and Goa'uld overseers who saw them. Despite their terror a few Jaffa trained staff cannons on the Asgard and started firing only for there fire to sleet ineffectively off the shields protecting the Asgard ships.

For a few seconds the Asgard let them fire in a futile gesture of defiance. Then the Asgard reacted, diffuse blue fans of energy shot out from points on the underside of the ships and played over the few positions firing at them. Instantly Jaffa and equipment alike vanished as the disintegrating rays instantly disassembled them and let their molecules float free in the air to be blown away by the wind. With the resistance effortlessly crushed the Asgard turned their attention and their disintegrator rays on their primary targets and began wiping them out as if they had never been present at all.

* * *

**Asgard Vessel Mjolnir**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Commander Freyr sat comfortably in the command throne on the bridge of the O'Neill-class battleship _Mjolnir_ and watched the annihilation of Anubis' orbital defences with a cool detachment. Though he regretted the loss of life on the destroyed Ha'tak's the Goa'uld had to relearn the price for violating the Protected Planets Treaty. The audacious attack Anubis had just mounted on Earth was – as far as the Asgard High Council was concerned – proof that the Goa'uld System Lords had begun to forget just how powerful the Asgard race was and why they should respect their wishes even though the Asgard civilisation was located in another galaxy.

"Commander sensors confirm all orbital defences have been eliminated," the Asgard at the sensor station reported. "Our ships are proceeding into orbit over their targets."

"Excellent," Freyr replied. "Instruct all our ships to proceed to their targets and eliminate them. We shall remain here in orbit to provide support if required."

"Yes commander," communications responded.

Freyr turned his attention back to the tactical hologram floating in front of him. It would not take their forces long to finish their work here, disintegration rays would make short work of the shipyards and Ha'tak landing pedestals. Once this was done he had but one more task, the elimination of the Kull Warrior production facilities on Tartarus, very soon there would be no more of those abominations to life to terrorise the developing races of this galaxy. _I just wish this wasn't necessary,_ he thought, _but we have no choice in this, we must remind the Goa'uld of the foolishness of violating the treaty, the destruction of these facilities should provide the System Lords with a suitable reminder._

Thinking more about it Freyr thought it was the Asgards own fault that things had gotten as bad as they were, with the System Lords starting to think they could violate the treaty at will. The war with the Replicators meant they had not been able to give the developing worlds and races of this galaxy the protection from exploitation by the System Lords that they had been able to in the past. In recent years the Goa'uld had committed a number of small treaty violations, from Heru'ur's attack on Cimmeria, to getting the Tollan to make phase shifting weapons of mass destruction for them, to Anubis throwing an asteroid at Earth and received no real response from the Asgard Fleet – certainly nothing like the punishment attacks that they had received in response in the past.

As a result various System Lords had begun getting bolder – moving in on worlds close to protected areas where they had been forbidden to go in the past. _Hopefully this attack will convince the System Lords that we are back and that we will no longer tolerate violations of the treaty,_ Freyr thought knowing that the Asgard High Council were playing a dangerous game. Though the war with the Replicators was finally over – the last of them having been sucked down into the black hole they'd transformed Halla's star into a few days ago – the Asgard were not really in a position to rigorously enforce the treaty. There fleet was still dangerously weak and they could not spare many resources to rebuild it, the search for a cure to their genetic degradation taking the bulk of their resources and time. _The Goa'uld shouldn't realise that we're bluffing that we can't always respond to a violation with an attack of this magnitude,_ Freyr thought _if they do then we will have a problem._

Freyr was brought out of his thoughts by a bleep from the communications station.

"Commander our ships are reporting that the groundside targets have been eliminated with minimal resistance from the Jaffa on the planet," communications reported.

"Very well," Freyr responded not at all surprised by the lack of resistance from the Jaffa, the Asgard were well aware of the Jaffa rebellion gathering pace and the fear and awe with which the Jaffa regard them. "Order all ships to return to orbit and rendezvous with us and set course for Tartarus."

"Yes commander."

* * *

Slowly over a period of five minutes the fleet of Asgard warships rose up out of the atmosphere of Anubis throne world and rendezvoused with the _Mjolnir._ Re-establishing their formation the Asgard ships broke orbit and headed out into open space. As they cruised away their hyperdrives powered up, focused subspace fields apply tremendous pressure to the fabric of space ahead of them, peeling apart the walls of the space-time continuum.

With silent roars hyperspace windows burst into existence and in perfectly synchronised formation the Asgard ships vanished into hyperspace. Their destination was the planet Tartarus and the Kull Warrior production facilities located their, facilities that would soon disappear forever, washed away by the power of the Asgard.

* * *

**Ruins of Washington DC**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Major John Sheppard swore softly as he stumbled on some debris from a shattered building and nearly went sprawling. He'd already fallen a number of times on the rubble that seemed to choke the streets of the smouldering city, and had the cuts, bruises and abrasions to prove it. Still the pain from them was nothing compared to the pain in his heart and soul, pain caused by the site of so much death and destruction. Though he had seen such things before in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world it was somehow different seeing Washington shattered and in many places in flames, it was more real, more upsetting than anything he had ever seen.

Everywhere he looked there was nothing but smoke, fire, debris and billowing clouds of dust from pulverised buildings. The devastation inflicted by those weird energy bolts that had come from somewhere beyond the sky was total. It was what he imagined the aftermath of a nuclear attack would look like.

So far he had not encountered anything alive; the city was gripped by a deathly silence broken only by the crackling roar of the fires and the occasional rumble of an explosion either from a fuel station or a ruptured gas line. Despite an attempt to remain positive, telling himself that people survived massive calamities all the time, he was beginning to wonder if he was the only living thing – Human or otherwise – left alive in Washington DC. _Don't think that, John,_ he told himself firmly, _there's got to be survivors, there's just got to be. You just haven't found any yet._

It was at that moment that a faint sound reached his ears; a sound that stopped him dead in his tracks and made him listen intently. It sounded like a child crying. Relief flooded through John Sheppard and nearly made him sink to his knees in pure relief, he wasn't alone after all. There was someone else still alive in Washington and they were in trouble.

Listening intensely he tried to locate the source of the cry, which wasn't easy given the constant background roaring of the fires. Eventually he determined that it was coming from the half-shattered remains of a five story block of flats, somehow someone had miraculously survived the bombardment that had half destroyed the building.

Turning in the direction of the building, John hurried inside stumbling on debris as he did so. The main foyer area of the block was in ruins, littered with debris that had fallen from the levels above.

"Hello," he called heading towards the flat immediately to the right where the crying seemed to be coming from.

"Help us," a woman's voice called over the sound of the crying child. "Please help us."

"It's okay I'm coming," John called back as he came to a partially opened door, through which he could just catch a glimpse of a hallway. Reaching out he pushed on the door to get it to open far enough to get through, only to find that it refused to move. Looking up he swore softly to himself when he saw that the frame had shifted, was all twisted and distorted, making it very difficult to get the door to move. _Things are never easy are they, John,_ he thought before taking a step back and kicking the door hard.

The door opened a little further; encouraged he kicked it again and again putting as much force behind the kicks as he could until the door opened completely allowing into what had once been a nice ground floor flat. Now though like the building that housed it the place was a wreck, debris and possessions fallen everywhere which made footing treacherous at best. Following the crying he made his way into the kitchen diner area.

And found a middle aged but still attractive blond haired woman pinned under a heavy oak table that had fallen on its side, pinning her legs to the ground. A young boy of about nine or ten was endeavouring to lift the oak table off her – and not getting anywhere as he wasn't strong enough – while off to the side a girl of about six stood crying her eyes out. The woman – obviously the kid's mother – looked over at the sound of his entrance and a look of relief appeared on her face.

"Please help us," she said.

"I'll do my best," John replied coming in and moving over to the table. "What's your name son?" he asked the little boy.

"Leon," the little boy answered. "This is my mom and the one screaming the place down is my sister, Megan."

John smiled. "My names John," he said moving to the other side of the table. "Now what say we get this table off your mother?" Leon grinned and nodded. "Okay then on the count of three," as he spoke he got himself into position, "one… two… three."

The moment he said through he lifted the table off the trapped woman, though he was in excellent physical shape – you weren't allowed to fly if you weren't – the table was both heavy and an awkward shape. Despite this he managed to hold it up with relative ease, though he let Leon take a very small amount of the weight so the kid could feel like he was helping.

In no time at all he had the table back upright and was carefully checking the woman's legs for any sign of a break. Amazingly she seemed unharmed by the table, well aside from a few bruises. "You're fine, no breaks though you'll ache for a few days," he said with a smile. "Can you stand?"

"I think so," the woman – who by the looks of her was only a few years older than him – said before cautiously getting to her feet, she swayed for a moment then steadied herself. "Thank you."

"Your welcome," John answered. "I was beginning to think I was the only one left alive in this city until I heard Megan over there doing her best to scream what's left of the building down."

"She's done nothing but cry mommy like usual," Leon added with a glare to his sister – who was sniffling but no longer bawling at the top of her lungs, eyes that were shining from tears were glaring over at her brother.

"Now, Leon that's not a nice thing to say about your sister."

"But that's all she ever does, mom," Leon answered. "And Dad says to cry is to show weakness."

John watched as the woman rolled her eyes, clearly this was an old argument. "Now listen here Leon James Sumner," the woman said bending down to her son's eye level. "Your father is wrong there, it is not weakness to cry or show emotion, it only shows that you're Human do you understand?"

Leon frowned. "But dad says…" he started to object.

"I know what your father says and I will be having some very strong words with him about this. He might be a marine but you're not and he's wrong for trying to mould you into one," the woman said standing back up upright and turning to look at John. "Sorry," she said. "Marshall my husband is a colonel in the marines," she explained. "And he seems to be determined to make Leon into one as well – not matter how often I tell him off about it."

John snorted slightly. "Marines," he said with a shake of his head, he had dealt with marines a number of times in his career and never came away with a good impression of them in general. They were always far too cocky and far too arrogant for his tastes, not to mention dismissive to anyone outside their tight little circle of jarheads. Oh one or two marines he'd known had been great guys and gals who really knew how to have a good time when off duty, but they were the exception and not the rule.

"Oh don't get me wrong I love, Marshall to bits but he can be annoying at times."

"I see. Oh forgive me I've been rude and not even told you my name. I'm Major John Sheppard, US Air Force," John replied offering his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Major Sheppard, I'm Melissa Sumner and these are my children," Melissa answered taking his hand and shaking it. "What happened, some kind of terrorist attack?"

"Not unless Al-Qaeda can somehow cause energy bolts to rain from the sky and pound much of the city flat and has somehow got its hands on very unusual and fast aircraft," John answered. "I swear it was like something out of Independence Day or War of the Worlds."

Melissa frowned slightly. She had a good idea what those energy bolts and aircraft were, though she wasn't military and thus not supposed to know anything about it. The reason she knew was though he would hotly deny it Marshall Sumner talked in his sleep – when he wasn't snoring loud enough to wake the dead that was, another thing that he would very hotly deny he did – consequently she knew quite a bit about the supposedly top secret Stargate Programme. Knew what the Air Force, with some cooperation from the Marine Corps, had been up to for the last several years behind the back of not just the American people but the whole planet.

Though she'd never let on about what she knew. Melissa knew full well that it would have put her husband in an untenable position between his duty and his family. _Though if we've been attacked this openly, this directly I don't see the government being able to cover it up this time,_ she thought.

John Sheppard frowned slightly as he saw a multitude of different expressions flash across the face of the woman before him. One of the few things he had learned from his father Patrick – before they fell out over his choice of career – was how to read someone. It was obvious to him that the woman he'd just helped knew something about what had happened, who their attackers were. Attackers that he for one were convinced were aliens however incredible and bizarre that sounded. To his mind it was the only thing that made sense.

He was about to open his mouth to ask her a question when a brilliant flash of light outside caught his attention. A flash that was followed half a second later by a loud rumbling clap of thunder. _Huh how could there be a storm now,_ he thought as there was another flash of lightning and clap of thunder just as a very strong wind began making the entrance door to the building bang against the wall outside the flat. The noise was enough to start Megan crying again – in fear this time – and run to her mother, even Leon looked a little scared though John could tell he was trying to hide it.

More thunder crashed loudly with such force that the very walls seemed to vibrate with the shockwaves. An ominous sounding groan came from the building and some white dust fell from the ceiling, drawing cries of fear from Leon and Megan.

"We need to get out of here," John said. "This building is going to come down any minute."

"Out into the storm," Melissa asked looking at him as though he was crazy.

"Believe me I'm not thrilled by the idea," John replied as more thunder claps and the ever strengthening wind made the building shake and groan ominously. "But it seems we don't have any other choice, we stay here and were liable to get pancaked when this place comes down."

"Point," Melissa conceded. "Okay kids get your coats on quickly."

Leon and Megan reluctantly nodded and hurried to their rooms to get their coats on. Melissa for her part picked up her coat from behind the door then looked over at John wearing nothing but his flight suit. "I've got a spare coat here if you want to borrow it," she said.

John considered for a few moments. A coat would be handy especially if this storm turned into more than just strong winds and electrical disturbance. "Sure if you don't mind me borrowing it," he said.

"Its Marshall's and while he is a little bit broader shouldered than you it should fit over your flight suit," Melissa replied with a smile taking the spare coat from its place behind the door.

"Thanks," John answered accepting the coat, a coat that carried the lingering smell of a brand of aftershave that he didn't particularly care for. _As they say beggars can't be choosers,_ he though as he put it on. The coat was slightly too short in the body for him but otherwise it fit, no doubt thanks to the added bulk of his flight suit as the coat was obviously designed for someone who was shorter than him and with a different body type to boot.

"See near perfect fit," Melissa said grinning as she put on her own coat. A moment later Leon and Megan returned dressed in their own coats.

John smiled. "Right then everybody ready," he asked just as the building emitted another ominous groan and more dust along with pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling.

"Ready or not we have to go," Melissa said looking up at the ceiling worriedly, a number of ominous cracks were snaking their way across the once smooth surface, some of them quite wide. Being the daughter of a successful structural engineer she knew full well that in moments the ceiling would give way and bury them under God knew how much debris from the upper floors. An event that was sure to bring about their deaths.

"Good point," John agreed giving the ceiling a nervous glance himself. "You and the kids go first."

Melissa nodded and took her children's hands before leading them out of their ruined flat, out the building and into the debris strewn streets of the smouldering city. John followed a few steps behind her and noted how they paused at the bottom of the buildings steps to stare at the scene of utter devastation in a mixture of horror and disbelief.

"Its awful isn't it," he said.

"Yeah," Melissa replied the strong wind blowing across the city sending her long, blond hair flying in all directions. "Where do we go from here?"

John shrugged. "I have no idea all I was planning to do was get out of the city and back to the base I'm stationed at," he said. "Assuming it's not been attacked there's shelter there. Its likely to be intact as the bombardment seemed to be focused on the city."

"Sounds like a plan," Melissa answered.

"Mom do we have to walk there," Leon asked dismayed at the prospect of having to walk across the city. While he was a very active boy he didn't relish a long walk, surely they would be able to get in the car and drive to wherever it was they were going.

"Only until we can find a working car, Leon," John told him. "Or a search party – if there are any – finds us."

"We better get started then," Melissa added, though like her children she didn't relish the walk, but there was no way they could stay here. Not with this wind, wind that was almost certain to fan and spread the fires until Washington was reduced to nothing but a smear of black, baked earth. The only way she could see for that to not happen was for it to start raining as that would put out the worst of the blazes.

"But mom…" Leon started to object.

"But nothing, Leon," Melissa said firmly. "We're going."

Leon scowled but knew better than to argue with his mother when she used that tone of voice. Even his father wouldn't argue with mom when she used that tone of voice. Reluctantly he nodded while beside him Megan grinned at her brother buckling under their mother's stern gaze.

Then without any further words Melissa started walking, tugging on her children's hands so they walked with her, John followed a few paces behind her. Silently they began their journey through the city towards the airbase John Sheppard was assigned to, all hoping that it had miraculously survived the holocaust that had been unleashed upon Washington DC, and unknown to them the entire world.

* * *

**Kull Warrior Production Facility**

**Tartarus, That Same Time**

Eris the chief Goa'uld scientist in charge of the Kull Warrior production facility on Tartarus – replacing Thoth who'd been murdered during the Tok'ra/Tau'ri raid on this facility a few months ago – frowned as she studied the latest report from the cloning facility. Something had gone wrong in the initial growth phase of the latest batch of Kull Warrior drones rendering over four thousand units useless, they would have to scrap the batch and start from scratch. Something that she was not looking to explaining to Lord Anubis as the Kull Warrior drones were one of the cornerstones of his plans for galactic conquest. Given their short lifespan any delay in the production of new warriors would be at best inconvenient and at worse disastrous. Especially if stalled the advance of Anubis forces and gave the System Lords more time to consolidate their collective forces and reinforce defences on key target worlds.

After a moment Eris sighed and put the data pad down. She had to figure out what exactly the error was that had developed with the Kull, which wasn't going to be an easy task considering the complexity of the technology involved. Technology that was Ancient in origin as this entire facility was built on top of and around an old Ancient genetic research station. It was only here that they had the equipment, not to mention the required energy from tapping the fury of this planet's many volcanoes, to grow and animate the Kull Warriors, a process that was very complicated, very energy intensive and as the latest faulty batch proved far from perfected.

The sound of running booted feet caught her attention and Eris looked up just as two of the Jaffa guards came running into the room. There were few Jaffa here – only those most loyal to Lord Anubis were trusted with an assignment to this base, but still Eris was weary of the Jaffa now giving how quickly dissent and disbelief were spreading through their ranks. One never truly knew the heart of a Jaffa these days – there was always the suspicion now that one of them was going to slip a knife in her back or worse.

"**What is the meaning of this intrusion,"** she demanded giving the Jaffa a glare that promised extreme retribution if they were bothering her for something that wasn't vitally important.

"My Lady we've received an urgent communication from the throne world," the more senior of the two Jaffa responded. "They've been attacked."

"**What!"** Eris breathed, staring at the Jaffa in stunned disbelief for a moment before pulling herself together. **"Who would dare carry out such an attack?"** she demanded imperiously.** "Which of the System Lords is responsible for such an outrage?"**

"They were attacked by the Asgard my lady. The enemy fleet achieved total surprise and eradicated the guardian fleet and orbital defences in minutes before firing on all munitions plants, shipyards and Ha'tak landing pedestals. They left orbit a few moments ago, their hyperspace vector is for this planet."

Eris's eyes widened in horror at the Jaffa's worlds, before flashing with golden light, an attack by the diminutive but powerful Asgard was the stuff of Goa'uld nightmares. The question was why had the Asgard mounted the attack on the throne world at this time and were they coming here to destroy this facility as well? Then the truth dawned on her. She had been fully aware that Anubis had been on his way to attack the Tau'ri and eliminate the threat they posed to his plans. His attack must have failed and now the Asgard Fleet was delivering retribution for the violation of the Protected Planets Treaty.

"**How many ships,"** she asked. The number of warships was the crux issue that would determine if they withstood the Asgard attack or if they were destroyed by it.

"Twenty warships my lady," the Jaffa answered.

"**I see. Very well order all base personnel to emergency stations raise the shield and bring the defence systems online. If the Asgard want to destroy this facility they won't get do it without a fight. Then send a transmission to our forces on the front lines with the System Lords requesting reinforcements."**

Both Jaffa bowed. "Yes my lady," the more senior said before they left the room.

Eris scowled as they left. Twenty Asgard warships was a very formidable force – bigger and more powerful than any single force the Goa'uld had faced when they and the Asgard had last faced each other in open war. Though this facility had a dome shield based on the same hybrid Goa'uld/Ancient principles as the shields on the Ha'tak's and was protected by formidable defensive weapons – weapons that were more advanced than even those on the throne world had been – she was not at all sure they would be able to repel an attack from such a formidable foe.

_I must prepare for the worst,_ she thought, _if this base looks like it's about to be destroyed then I have to be prepared to flee._ With that thought in mind Eris stood up and headed for her chambers to gather her research notes, she would need them to use as a bartering tool with the System Lords if she was forced to flee the facility. If that happened she doubted she would ever be able to work with Anubis again – assuming he was still alive and hadn't been blown to dust over the Tau'ri homeworld. But if that was the price of her life, then so be it.

* * *

**Asgard Vessel Mjolnir**

**A Few Moments Later**

Commander Freyr studied the tactical hologram as his squadrons ships slipped gracefully out of hyperspace into normal space and re-established the traditional Asgard battle phalanx formation. Before them was the planet now known as Tartarus, the heavily volcanic world that had long ago been the home of one of the Ancients premier genetic research and experimentation facilities, research that Anubis had discovered and horribly perverted to create the abominations to life that were his Kull Warriors. _But not for much longer,_ Freyr thought, _very shortly we will eliminate this facility and Anubis' horrible perversion of the Ancients legacy._

"Commander the sensors have located the Goa'uld facility," sensors reported. "As our intelligence reports indicate it is built around and on top of the Ancients research facility."

"Have they detected us," Freyr asked.

"Yes. The facility has raised a dome shield, however it is not a standard Goa'uld shield dome and it appears to employ some of the shield principles used by the Ancients."

Freyr frowned as much as was possible for an Asgard. Though he had expected it – given the hybrid shields Anubis employed on his motherships – the shield dome that employed both Goa'uld and Ancient technology was going to slow his mission down somewhat. They wouldn't be able to descend over the base and neatly make it 'go away' with disintegrator rays as they had at Anubis throne world. They would have to destroy the base via orbital bombardment and that would take a good few minutes given the twin factors of weapons diffusion over distance and the presence of the shield.

Freyr was about to order the fleet to enter orbit but something made him pause, some warriors instinct that he had never lost even though for the last thousand years he had sat on the High Council more often than he had commanded a warship. Yes the shield dome was strong but it made no sense for Anubis to rely entirely on it to protect such a vital facility, even if he didn't trust his Jaffa enough anymore to have a fleet of Ha'tak's guard the planet. Something wasn't right here.

"Scan the planets orbital space," he ordered. "Search for any sign of cloaked mines or defence satellites."

"Yes commander," sensors acknowledged before turning the _Mjolnir's_ state of the art sensors on Tartarus' orbital space, space the fleet would have to enter in order to bombard the facility. No sooner than he had issued the order than Freyr saw that he had been correct to be cautious as just outside orbit a shell of small pyramidal satellites appeared shimmering slightly as their cloaking fields deactivate to be replaced by shields.

"Commander the satellites are powering up their weapons," sensors reported as the satellites moved their positions slightly. "We are being targeted."

"All ships target the defence platforms, fire at will."

"Yes commander."

* * *

For a few more timeless second's peace continued to reign in the high orbital space above Tartarus, as though the universe was holding its breath. Then with breathtaking suddenness space came alive as the Goa'uld platforms opened fire on the Asgard. Intensely powerful plasma bolts emerged from the tip of the pyramidal platforms burned their way through space before impacting on the shields of the Asgard fleet where they dispersed in a harmless silver-blue flash of energy.

Rapid fire blue-white pulsed particle bolts shot out of the secondary weapons arrays of the Asgard ships in retaliation, each blast of disruptive charged particles connecting with a satellite and turning it into a hazy ball of disassociated ions as the satellite shields were nowhere near strong enough to repel the power of the Asgard weapons. Heedless of the losses the platforms continued firing but shifted their focus to target some of the Beliskner-class battlecruisers protecting the fleet's port flank, pummelling their shields even as more satellites disappeared in momentary flashes of ionic flame beneath the Asgard onslaught.

Within moments the highly accurate, well coordinated fire from the Asgard fleet had opened up a sizeable hole in the defensive grid as satellite after satellite died. With the outer defence band now hopelessly compromised a second much larger group of platforms disengaged cloaks and appeared behind the initial line, opening fire immediately upon fully materialising. An avalanche of plasma fire slammed into the Asgard fleet. Two of the port flanking Beliskner's their shields already weakened fell to the opening barrage as nearly a hundred streaks of plasma – each hotter than the core of a star – penetrated the shields on both battlecruisers to tear their hulls open and set off destructive secondary explosions throughout the vessels that quickly and efficiently tore them apart.

Not discouraged in the least by the fierce resistance being offered by the orbital defences, or by the loss of two of their warships the Asgard continued firing back. Each bolt of their weapons claiming another satellite and another and another, opening up holes in the planets defences. Defences that would have rebelled any attack that the System Lords would have been capable of mounting but which had never really been designed to withstand an assault from the assembled might of an Asgard battle phalanx.

Despite this the platforms continued firing, pounding the Asgard fleet with salvo after salvo of plasma making their shields flare and ripple with distortion waves as they refracted the heat and energy back out into space. Under the combined fire of a dozen platforms a third Beliskner lost its shields and began to be chewed apart by the barrage. Knowing the ship was doomed the Asgard crew directed their vessel forward into the densest part of the field. After a few more seconds the ship exploded as plasma tore through its four neutrino-ion generators venting all their energy at once. Debris and energy from the destroyed ship tore through the field, setting off a cascade of secondary explosions as platforms were enveloped in the maelstrom and annihilated, the souls of the Asgard crew riding the firestorm to Valhalla.

When the explosions faded and cooled a huge hole had been blown in Tartarus' orbital defences. Continuous fire from the remaining seventeen Asgard ships rained down on the few remaining platforms that were within range to interfere with the Asgards plans, wiping them from the heavens in a hail of charged particle bolts.

With orbital defences now hopelessly compromised the six O'Neill-class battleships and four of the Beliskner's moved into orbit. The remaining seven Beliskner's pulled back deploying themselves into a formation that would enable them to shoot down anymore platforms that the Goa'uld might be attempting to bring into range from the opposite side of the planet.

* * *

**Kull Warrior Facility**

"Lady Eris the Asgard fleet has broken through our orbital defences," one of the Jaffa manning the consoles in the control room reported. "Ten ships are taking up bombardment positions in orbit above the facility. The remaining seven have deployed into fire support formation outside the orbital grid."

Eris allowed herself a slight smile. Though the orbital defence network had been more or less obliterated it had done better against the Asgard than she would have thought with three of their ships destroyed and if sensors were to be believed shield damage to most of the other ships. They still had a chance of repelling the Asgard long enough for reinforcements to arrive from the front lines with the System Lords.

"**Excellent are the ground to orbit weapons armed?"** she asked.

"Yes my lady."

"**Good. Then target the closest Asgard ship and fire."**

"Yes my lady."

* * *

The moment Eris gave the order four large turrets mounted at the compass points on top of the surface structure of the base swivelled around and targeted the orbiting Asgard ships. Based on a combination of Ancient technology and the ion-beam weapons technology salvaged from the wreckage of the conquered Tollan homeworld Tollana each cannon represented the very latest in Goa'uld weapons technology. Weapons that were currently too big and cumbersome for all but Anubis command ship to be equipped with.

The cannons cycled up and had anyone been watching they would have seen a golden-yellow glow gathering in the weapons barrel. A second later a proton beam erupted from the muzzle of each cannon, streaking space wards, splitting the air apart with a load booming sound as they did so. In less than a moment the beams reached orbit and slammed into the O'Neill-class battleship _Valkestner, _setting her shields aglow and making the ship visibly tremble with the impact. The particle beams shut off as the Goa'uld weapons began recycling and for a brief, timeless moment calm reigned in orbit.

Then the _Mjolnir_ opened fire, a larger, brighter pulsed particle bolt shooting forth from its main cannon. The other O'Neill's and the Beliskner's followed suit each sending a brilliant blast of energy downwards towards the Goa'uld base. Secondary pulse arrays joined in sending smaller more rapidly firing pulses down towards the base as the six battleships and four battlecruisers unleashed all of their immense firepower on the single target.

The fierce barrage of energy bolts slashed down through the smoke rich atmosphere to slam into the nearly invisible dome-shaped bubble of energy that surrounded the Kull Warrior facility, with white hot force. The shield flashed, rippled with distortion waves and Alkesh-sized balls of energy appeared where the blasts struck only for their fury to sleet ineffectively off the shield back into the atmosphere as a haze of blue disassociated ions. Below the protective barrier the facility rocked with the shockwaves that passed through the field to slam into the base like a million invisible sledgehammers.

Defiantly the Goa'uld proton cannons fired again, sending another four javelins of energy slamming into the shields protecting the _Valkestner_. Already badly weakened by the earlier attack on top of the onslaught of plasma from the satellites the O'Neill class's shields weren't enough to protect the ship fully. Two of the particle beams – their power reduced to twenty percent by the force barrier – penetrated the force field to cut deep into the hull eliciting a spray of molten metal and an eruption of superheated atmosphere as explosive decompression opened a large part of the ships hammerhead to space. Wounded but not mortally the _Valkestner _began to pull back out of orbit to recharge and replenish its shields. The nine remaining ships intensified their attack unleashing another barrage of pulsed particle bolts from both main and secondary weapons.

The barrage sliced down through the atmosphere and once again pounded the shield dome over the Kull Warrior facility. A third volley followed half a second later, then a forth as the Asgard pumped as much energy as they could into their weapons arrays allowing them to fire almost continuously, only pausing between salvos long enough for their weapons capacitors to recharge. For a moment the shield continued to weather the storm of firepower without any apparent effort but then it began to glow dimly at first then brighter and brighter as the strain of the Asgards bombardment mounted forcing the shield to work ever harder to repel the enormous force of the Asgard energy weapons.

* * *

**Control Room**

**Kull Warrior Facility**

Eris stumbled against the wall of the control room as the facility shook violently with the shockwaves of the bombardment. So far the shield was holding under the Asgards bombardment but the strain on it was enormous. A glance at the status displays showed that shield strength was already starting to drop, the proton cannons had shut down their energy being automatically shunted to the beleaguered shield generators.

Two things were immediately obvious to her. One was the fact that the new proton beam weapons were not quite as effective against Asgard shields as they would have hoped on top of the fact that they took far too much energy to fire. Two was the fact that she had been right to think up a contingency plan for her own survival, as it was obvious that the shield dome was not going to be able to withstand the Asgard assault for long – the Asgard weapons were simply too powerful. _I must escape,_ she thought picking up the satchel that contained the crystals with her research notes on up before quietly slipping out of the control room.

"**Let no one else leave the control room," **she ordered to the two Kull Warrior drones guarding the door. Both Kull's bowed their heads in acknowledgement of the order and Eris left them to as she disappeared around a bend in the corridor.

As soon as she was out of sight of the control room Eris began to run through the corridors of the facility – doing her best to ignore the now near constant shaking. In moments she reached the entrance and hurried outside to the bridge over a river of white hot lava from the nearby volcano that flowed between the mountain on which the facility was built and the neighbouring cliff top where the chappa'ai and its dialling device stood.

Overhead the shield was now glowing fiercely, hellishly with the intense strain of resisting the immense firepower hammering it. The noise of the bombardment was intense as though a million bass drums were being struck continuously making the air itself seem to vibrate with the shockwaves, but she ignored it as much as she could as she looked up at the shield. With the eye of someone who knew about such things Eris could tell that the powerful dome shield – the strongest ever constructed by the Goa'uld - was getting dangerously close to failure. Still she believed there would be enough time to save herself and get off world.

Quickly Eris made her way across the bridge to the chappa'ai, ignoring the searing heat coming off the river of molten rock flowing below with practiced ease, and used her remote unit to deactivate the security force shield around the gate. With a calmness that she didn't really feel she began entering a Stargate address for one of the worlds in Lord Ba'al's domain – as she knew that Ba'al was forever looking for new under lords as he was one of the stronger surviving System Lords third only in power to Lord Yu Hang Shang-Ti and Lady Amaterasu. Plus there was the well known facts that Ba'al was always on the lookout for a gifted scientist to replace that disgustingly obese fool Nerus.

Nerus.

Even the mere thought of him made Eris wrinkle her host's nose in distaste. Nerus was known to greatly love the pleasures that came with having a Human host, his excessive drinking and eating habits were legendary amongst the Goa'uld fascinating them even as it simultaneously repelled them. Unfortunately Nerus was a good scientist – not as good as her but still good – which had meant his excessive appetites had been tolerated. _But not for much longer if Ba'al accepts my services,_ she thought imagining the look on Nerus' face when she showed up. She and Nerus had clashed before – especially when Nerus had been in her service before defecting to Cronos, taking with him the knowledge that had enable Cronos to overpower her fleet and take her domain from her.

The last chevron on the chappa'ai clicked into place and the unstable vortex burst forth before settling down into the familiar silvery blue water-like surface of the wormhole. Eris was just about to walk up to the wormhole when there was a planet shattering boom and a tremendous concussion wave knocked her off her feet.

Groaning Eris picked herself up and looked up. To see that the shield had vanished, she looked back at the Kull Warrior facility where she had worked tirelessly for the last few years ever since fleeing for her life after Cronos destroyed her fleet and his armies began systematically taking over the few worlds that had been her domain. She was just in time to see a bolt of blue-white energy particles slam into the main structure triggering a massive explosion, the blast wave beginning to spread through the complex making the rock bend and flex while sending a plume of smoke and rubble skywards.

Eris turned and raced through the wormhole, a second before another powerful blast struck the facility completely erasing the surface structure in an eruption of smoke, debris and fire. The remaining parts of the complex collapsed burying the underground corridors and cloning chambers under millions of tonnes of debris. A third and final pulsed particle bolt struck the shattered remains of the complex, burrowing down through the debris before exploding deep within the bowls of the mountain, rupturing the Ancient built geothermal taps that had capped a large subsurface magma chamber to provide the base with all the energy it needed.

A new conduit to the surface now opened the magma having been held under tremendous pressure for millions of years by the power of the Ancients technology exploded upwards as if eager for freedom. A massive mushrooming cloud of smoke, ash and steam shot through with great tongues of liquid fire erupted from the shattered mountain that had once housed the Kull Warrior facility. The eruption cloud rapidly rose up to the stratosphere propelled by the tremendous force of the detonation as a new volcano loudly announced its birth to the universe.

* * *

**Asgard Vessel Mjolnir**

"Target destroyed, commander," sensors reported.

Commander Freyr nodded, he could see it himself. The massive plume of ash was clearly visible spreading out across Tartarus polluted skies from space. The exploding magma, released from the pressured cauldron it had been kept in for millions of years would soon erase what little was left of the Kull Warrior facility from existence. There would now be no more of those abominations produced by Anubis or whichever Goa'uld took over the domain of the defeated System Lord.

"Understood," Freyr said before bowing his head and paying silent homage to those of his fellow Asgard who had died in this battle, Asgard who could never be resurrected in a new clone body. Though he supposed he should be grateful that they had died as their ancestors had died, as warriors who would be afford places of honour in the great warrior halls of Valhalla, rather than suffer the genetic degeneration that was slowly destroying the rest of his people.

He also took a moment to mourn the deaths of any Human slaves that had been in the base. While he did not mourn the passage of the Goa'uld scientists or the Jaffa – they were enemies and thus deserved little if any mercy from the Asgard, the Human slaves however were another story. They were the innocents in all of this and it was a sad fact of the universe that sometimes in war innocents died in the crossfire, becoming collateral damage as the Tau'ri called it.

"Communications order all of our ships to break orbit," he ordered after a moment's silence. "Our task here is done. All ships are to set course for the Tau'ri homeworld and prepare to render any and all assistance they can, given how much damage Anubis has done the Tau'ri are going to need all the help we can give them."

"Yes commander."

* * *

With the normal effortless grace that belied the size of their vessels the Asgard fleet broke orbit of Tartarus, formed up and vanished into hyperspace on course for Earth. Behind them they left the wreckage of the Goa'uld facility, a facility that was melting and burning beneath the irresistible elemental force of the newborn volcano.

It was a fitting funeral pyre for the Kull Warriors, for Anubis and for that Goa'uld's dreams of galactic conquest.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Alpha Centauri III **

**A Few Moments Later**

The first thing that Major Samantha Carter saw when the Asgard transporter beam released her, Teal'c and Daniel inside the Ancient facility on the surface of Alpha Centauri III was complete darkness. The first thing she felt was cold, mind numbing, breath stealing cold. It was such a sudden sharp change from the warmth of Thor's battleship that she immediately began shivering and felt goose bumps erupt all over all exposed skin surfaces. Resisting the impulse to discard her P90 and rub her hands up her arms to keep warm Sam looked around, noting in the process that movements seemed slightly harder than normal, that her limbs were taking more effort to move as though someone had attached wrist and ankle weights to them. _Gravity on this planet must be somewhat higher than on Earth,_ she thought. It wouldn't be the first time they'd encountered something like this as the gravity on no two worlds was every quite the same, though most of the time the difference was so subtle that it was unnoticeable.

"Okay this is not encouraging," she said her words seemingly being swallowed in the absolute blackness. She started to fumble to turn on the spotlight on her P90 when lights began to appear around them. They were small lights at first revealing a broad stairwell that climbed into the darkness of the room. Then gradually more lights came on filing the atmosphere with light and revealing that they were standing in a large room with walls that were a soft copper colour with some hints of tan mixed in and inset with ornate arrangements of the bluish white crystals that were providing the room with illumination.

Sam carefully looked around as the air rapidly began to warm to a more comfortable temperature. The room they were standing in was huge, about the same size as a football pitch, and transcended multiple levels. In front of them broad ornate stairs led up to a mezzanine level that looked down on this large open space, off to the side copper coloured doors inside with elaborate patterns of coloured crystal led off to other chambers.

Looking up towards the slightly vaulted ceiling Sam faintly saw the outline of large doors that led up to some other chamber far above their heads. Turning in place she wasn't surprised to see a Stargate standing proud at the other end of the chamber, directly opposite the stairs. Yet something was different, the gate looked sleeker, smoother and much less mechanical than the ones she was used to. The inner ring of the gate was covered with constellations that glowed from within with a faint blue-white light. All in all it gave the Stargate a more modern, even more advanced feel than the ones that were dotted about this galaxy.

"Wow I guess the Ancients improved the design of the Stargates before they're civilisation fell," Sam said. "But where's the DHD?"

"I guess it's up there, Sam," Daniel said pointing to the mezzanine level. "There might be some sort of control room up there."

"Worth a look," Sam agreed. "Teal'c, remain here and watch our six." The big Jaffa warrior nodded in acknowledgement and watched as Sam and Daniel cautiously ascended the stairs to the level above.

At the top of the stairs was what was clearly the control room for this facility, four small consoles were spaced equally in front of them looking at a wall of some transparent material that looked down upon the gate below. Dominating the back of the room on a slightly raised platform were three larger consoles that were arranged in a fashion reminiscent of half of a hexagon. Behind the rear console on the wall was a large holographic display plate, smaller plates seemed to hover in mid air over most of the consoles, though like the consoles all the holoscreens were dark and lifeless. One thing immediately jumped out at them about the control room.

There was no DHD.

"Where's the DHD," Sam asked as Daniel moved deeper into the room, glancing at the consoles as he did so and reading the Ancient symbols as he did so. One of the benefits of having once been ascended was the fact that he could fluently read and speak in Ancient, which had on half come in handy as the Ancients knowledge slowly but surely overwhelmed Jack O'Neill and took away his ability to read or speak anything else.

"It's this one, Sam," he said as he came to one of the smaller consoles. Sam came over to look and saw that there was a side trapezoidal console that were covered with buttons that were engraved with the familiar Stargate symbols and with a small red triangular button in the centre.

"Interesting design," Sam commented. "Try dialling Earth, Daniel."

Daniel nodded and reached out, the moment his hand touched the console lights surrounding the DHD panel along with the central triangle lit up as the system hummed to life. Calmly he started dialling in the familiar sequence of symbols on the unfamiliar control surface. Immediately there was reaction from the gate below, the constellation patterns of the inner ring changed chasing each other around the ring before making the individual chevrons light up with a blue light as opposed to lock and light up orange as they did on the more mechanical Stargates they were used to. In seconds he'd was through the sequence and on a hunch that the centre key was like the dome on normal DHD's he pressed it.

Instantly the unstable vortex of an activating Stargate burst into existence with the familiar _kawoosh_ sound before settling back into the shimmering silver blue water effect of an event horizon. Sam breathed a sigh of relief as the wormhole came to life, confirming that Earth's Stargate was still intact and functional. Though she hadn't said anything to Daniel or Teal'c she had feared that Stargate Command had been destroyed by Anubis as the Goa'uld had a number of different weapons that were capable of turning Cheyenne Mountain into a smoking crater in the ground. Of course it was still possible that the SGC could be gone, that the Stargate could be intact just buried under millions of tonnes of debris.

Toggling her radio she uttered a silent prayer that it would work. "This is Major Samantha Carter calling Stargate Command please respond," she said her headset transferring her words to the radio which then sent the light speed signal through the event horizon of the wormhole. "Repeating this is Major Samantha Carter calling Stargate Command please respond."

For a few agonising uncertain moments there was no response from the control room back in Stargate Command. Sam was just about to assume the worst that the SGC had either been destroyed or invaded by the Jaffa and Kull Warriors of Anubis when the radio crackled to life with an incoming transmission.

"This is Doctor Elizabeth Weir at Stargate Command, Major Carter is that you?" came the voice of the new civilian commander who'd replaced General Hammond at the behest of President Hayes. Like many others at the SGC Sam had read between the lines and known Kinsey was behind her appointment; no doubt the vice president wanted someone he could control in charge since he had failed repeatedly to get the Stargate Programme shut down.

In that regard the crooked politicians scheme had backfired on him as Doctor Weir had already shown that she was no ones pawn and would judge a situation on its merits and not to further someone else's political agenda. Which made for a good mark of approval in Sam's book – anyone who wasn't afraid to stand up to Kinsey was deserving of at the very least respect.

"Yes ma'am," Sam replied. "I'm with Teal'c and Daniel."

"How are you communicating through the Stargate? Where are you and where is Colonel O'Neill?"

"We're in a facility built by the Ancients on the third planet of Alpha Centauri, ma'am," Sam answered. "Thor told us about it and brought us here so we could use its Stargate."

"I see and where is Colonel O'Neill?"

"He's still aboard, Thor's ship undergoing treatment for his condition," Sam answered.

"Condition, what condition?" Doctor Weir asked sounding genuinely concerned.

"As anticipated the Ancient knowledge completely overwhelmed, Jack's brain," Daniel explained coming onto the radio himself. "According to the Asgard the knowledge was present for a dangerous amount of time, its inflicted severe physiological damage. Too much for the Asgard medical technology to repair even after removing the knowledge, so they've transferred Jack's mind into their ships computer and are preparing to clone him a new body."

For a moment there was no response from Doctor Weir and Daniel guessed that she was trying to wrap her head around what they had just told her. It was understandable as it was one thing to read SG mission reports about advanced alien technologies and actually hearing about them or seeing them in action. Despite all his experiences since they'd first opened the Stargate eight years ago even he got blown away by some of the things they encountered in their travels. Travels that were almost certainly going to be suspended for awhile given how much damage Anubis had done to Earth and how many people he had killed.

"I see," Weir said at last.

"We'll be returning to Earth as soon as possible," Sam added. "In the meantime I would suggest that you send a science team to this location; this facility from what little we've seen so far seems to be more advanced than the Antarctic facility."

"I'm afraid that will not be possible for awhile, major," Doctor Weir answered. "Colorado Springs was hit hard during the Goa'uld bombardment. I've got as many able bodied personnel as we can spare gearing up to head out and help in the search for survivors. The rest are trying to work out away of re-establishing contact with the presidential bunker, assuming they are still alive."

"I understand what do you want us to do?" Sam asked.

"I need you to come back through the Stargate as quickly as possible things are about to get crazy on this planet. Now that Anubis' fleet has been destroyed the outposts can wait."

"What about Colonel O'Neill," Sam asked.

"I am sure that the Asgard will take very good care of him and return him as soon as they are able to do so. But I need the rest of you back here we're going to need your skills." Sam scowled and was about to object to leaving Jack in the hands of the Asgard, though she would trust Thor with her life she wasn't so sure about the rest of his crew given how the Asgard were to save their species and the lengths that some of them would go to. The incident earlier this year when the rogue Asgard scientist Loki – in direct defiance of the Asgard High Council – cloned Jack readily came to her mind.

Somehow Weir must have sensed what she was going to say because when she spoke again her voice was ringing with authority. "And that is an order, Major," she said.

"Yes ma'am," Sam said reluctantly but knowing she had no real choice but to obey. While General Hammond would have allowed her to stay with Jack while the Asgard cloned him a new body without argument she wasn't going to get that consideration with Doctor Weir, who probably wouldn't hesitate to have her thrown in a cell if she disobeyed orders. Especially with Earth so badly hurt, and truth be told Sam was worried about Cassie as well and wanted to know if she was still alive or lying dead somewhere in the rubble of Colorado Springs. Then there was Pete to think about, the cop that she was falling increasingly in love with and who was talking about transferring to the Colorado Springs Police Department from his native Denver so they could be together. At the moment like Cassie she didn't know if Pete was still alive.

"We'll be back as soon as we can," she added. "We will first have to inform, Thor about what we're doing then we'll return through the Stargate."

"Excellent, I will see you shortly, Weir out."

The radio went dead and Sam sighed, before glancing down at the Stargate and watched as it shut down – its automatic systems recognising that there was no longer anything travelling through the event horizon and immediately triggering power down. Then she looked over at Daniel to see him moving between the different consoles, looking at the glyphs and knowing Daniel mentally translating them from Ancient to English.

"Anything interesting, Daniel?" she asked.

The anthropologist/linguist/archaeologist looked up at her words. "I can't tell much at the moment, Sam as all these consoles are powered down," he said. "But from what I can gather just by looking the whole complex is primarily controlled from this room. Though how much of a facility there is beyond here I have no idea."

"Much as I would like to find out we can't stay," Sam replied. "Weir wants the three of us back on Earth pronto."

"I know I heard. I can't say I'm surprised it's going to be a real mess back there. Though as you said to Weir we should tell Thor so he knows he doesn't have to stick around in orbit."

Sam nodded and toggled her radio again. "Thor this is Major Carter please respond," she said. There was no reply beyond a faint crackling of static. Frowning she tried again. "Thor this is Major Carter please respond."

Again there was no response from Thor.

Frowning himself now, Daniel tried his own radio. "Thor this is Daniel Jackson, please respond," he said, but to his total lack of surprise there seemed to be no response at all from the Asgard.

"Something must be interfering with our communications," Sam reasoned knowing Thor would never leave orbit without informing them first. "We'll have to see if we can get this facility communications array online."

"Right," Daniel said and quickly glanced around. "That's this console," he added going to one of the ones at the front of the control room.

"Okay let's see if we can power it up," Sam said before taking off her backpack and reaching in to retrieve a computer tablet, albeit one that was heavily modified beyond what its makers had ever designed or conceived of.

She was just starting to look for a spare slot to plug the interface crystal into when Daniel touched the console with his right hand. The moment his hand touched the console Daniel stiffened slightly as he felt what he could only describe as a presence enter then start to scan his mind. _Unknown user detected, stand by,_ it seemed to tell him, _Lantean marker confirmed, bio-energy signature recognised, access granted, activating primary systems._

With a soft humming sound the crystals and dials on the console lit up; simultaneously the holoscreen came on filling with the bluish light of an Ancient datastream interface. Streams of characters in Ancient flashed across the screen and as he read them Daniel knew that the facilities subspace communications antenna, so long dormant, was beginning to come back to life.

And that wasn't the only thing returning to life.

All around the control room the consoles and holographic screens were beginning to glow and hum as power flowed into and through their circuits for the first time in ten thousand years. The entire control room was reacting to his presence, coming to life in much the same way as the lights had come on.

Sam looked around in astonishment at all the glowing consoles and holodisplays with their flickering datastreams, then looked back at Daniel who seemed to be just as surprised as she was. "Wow," she said. "How did you do that?"

"I have no idea, Sam," Daniel answered with a shrug. "As soon as I put my hand on the console I felt _something_ probing my mind, it seemed to accept me and powered up the control room systems."

"Maybe it is some legacy from when you were ascended, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said making both Sam and Daniel jump. The big Jaffa's attention had been drawn by the sound of systems powering up and he'd come to investigate and to make sure his team-mates were alright and not in any form of danger.

"Damn it, Teal'c are you trying to give us a heart attack or something," Daniel asked smiling at his friend. "But I think you're right, Teal'c."

"It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened," Sam agreed remembering the few times in the last year when Daniel had remembered events from his time as an ascended being, on top of the fact that he was now fully conversant in Ancient. "But this is beside the point right now," she continued. "Is the communications array online now, Daniel?"

Daniel checked the console, reading the Ancient characters streaming across the consoles holodisplay plate and mentally translating them into English. "Yes it is, short range only at the moment, but I can hail Thor's ship," he said.

"Do it," Sam answered. Daniel nodded and pressed a few of the crystals in sequence, producing slight tones of crystalline sounding music as he did so. After a second the console gave a soft chime as the facilities subspace communication array made contact with its Asgard counterpart on the _Jack O'Neill_.

Instantly the holographic display changed from the datastream and brought in an incredibly detailed holographic image of an Asgard sitting in one of the races familiar throne like chairs. The absence of a column of shimmering energy in the background indicated that the Asgard in question was not on the _Jack O'Neill's_ bridge but elsewhere on the mighty alien warship.

"Yes, Major Carter," Thor asked.

"Thor we've been in touch with the SGC," Sam replied. "They want us to return to Earth via the Stargate immediately."

"Then you must do so," Thor answered promptly. "I will transport Master Bra'tac down to your coordinates immediately before returning to Earth orbit. I will transport O'Neill down to Stargate Command as soon as we are sure his neural patterns have correctly integrated with his clone body."

"How is the coming," Sam asked, the scientist in her curious about the Asgard cloning process. While she was an astrophysicist and mechanical engineer by training the advanced medical science of the Asgard was still intriguing to her.

"The cloning process is proceeding at a slower pace than normal," Thor replied. "As Loki discovered previously cloning a Human with O'Neill's unique physiological traits and genetic markers is very difficult. The clone will not be ready for consciousness transfer for quite some time."

"We understand, Thor," Daniel said recalling the events that had led up to Jack getting his very own mini-me. A clone who now went by the name Jonathan Pierce – apparently Pierce was Jack's mother's maiden name – and was attending High School. By all accounts he was doing quite well and not hiding his naturally high intelligence the way the original did. "I'm sure you are doing your best," he added.

"Indeed we are, Daniel Jackson," Thor responded.

"We don't doubt it, Thor," Sam answered. "Now if you'll please excuse us we'll have to dial the Stargate back up and return to the SGC."

"Of course, I will speak with you again shortly Major Carter," Thor replied before cutting the communication from his end.

Almost immediately the light and almost musical tone of an Asgard transporter beam came from the level below. Looking down upon the Stargate Teal'c observed his friend and former mentor the great warrior, Bra'tac appearing right in front of the Stargate. Bra'tac seemed to blink for a moment as he got his bearings then turned and started up the stairs to join them.

Daniel meanwhile returned to the DHD and once again set about dialling Earth. As before the sequence went through and the new model Stargate lit up in the correct sequence but it was when he pressed the key to open the gate that something went wrong. Instead of activating the wormhole the console gave a small warning crystalline-sounding chirp and a flashing line of Ancient script appeared on the holodisplay.

"Damn," Daniel said softly. "According to this powering the facility up has drained power we cannot reopen the Stargate due to the energy drain."

"Great," Sam said with a sigh as Daniel looked around at the different consoles before going to one of the ones at the back of the room on their slightly raised dais and scanned their holodisplays before making a sound of understanding. "What is it," she asked.

"Apparently the facility is currently running on emergency power," Daniel answered. "The main power source is currently not engaged. What little power we've got appears to be coming from secondary energy capacitors; unfortunately they appear to have drained over time and only one remains with any charge. And there is not much left in said capacitor its draining fast due to the spike in energy consumption our presence here has caused. Power levels are at sixty percent and falling, we can't dial out there isn't enough energy left in the capacitor to ensure a stable connection for more than a few seconds.."

"So we need to reengage the main power source in order to dial the gate," Sam summarised she should have expected something like this to happen. As incredibly advanced as it was even the technology of the Ancients wasn't proof against failing due to either old age, lack of maintenance or being in someway damaged.

"Exactly," Daniel replied. "But I don't think we can do that from here," he added his fingers dancing across the crystalline controls as he spoke. He wasn't quite sure how he knew which controls to press and in which sequence, he just did. It wasn't the first time that had happened given he had the knowledge of the ascended buried in his subconscious mind.

Behind him the main holographic screen changed from displaying the datastream to showing a schematic image of the facility. It was enormous. They were currently in the core of the facility which appeared to be built inside of a mountain and descended over a hundred levels underground. Towards the lower levels the base spread out into the planes surrounding the core to a distance of ten kilometres in a circular pattern.

"The main power centre appears to be here," Daniel said as a red dot began to blink on the map, near the base of the facility. "My guess is we'll have to go down there to restore the main power supply – assuming that we can."

"Oh great that's going to be a hell of a walk," Sam replied knowing it would be very hard going in this level of gravity. Fit as she was it would be hard work, even Teal'c and Bra'tac would probably experience some exhaustion even due to the fact that as Jaffa they were biologically engineered by the Goa'uld to be stronger and have greater stamina than a regular Human.

"Indeed," Teal'c said in his normal deadpan voice.

"Yes but it appears to be our only choice," Daniel responded. "Given how deep it is inside the facility I doubt Thor would be able to transport us down there."

"Your right Asgard transporters don't have that much penetrating power when being used from space and he's probably left orbit by now," Sam agreed then sighed in resignation. "Okay what are we waiting for lets get to it. Daniel I want you to stay here and guide us via radio since you're the only one who can really read Ancient."

"Okay, Sam."

Samantha nodded and looked over at Teal'c and Bra'tac who both looked as calm as ever. "Let's get going," she said before heading back down the stairs. Teal'c and Bra'tac followed her leaving Daniel alone in the control room.

Daniel watched them go before turning his attention back to the console. He had a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that there were quicker ways of getting around the facility than using the core stairwell. It was only logical as at the end of the day the Ancients had been Humans – really advanced Humans, both biologically and technologically but Humans nevertheless – and wouldn't have wanted to have to walk everywhere. Especially in a facility this massive, which meant there had to be lifts or internal transport rings around here somewhere.

He just had to find them.

* * *

**Presidential Emergency Bunker**

**Outside Washington DC**

**A Few Minutes Later**

President Henry Hayes sighed as he sat at the desk in the makeshift office had been hurriedly assigned to him. He had no doubt that it was going to be the only office that he would know for awhile considering the Oval Office like the rest of the White House and Washington DC had been blasted to rubble during the bombardment little over an hour ago. In the time since he'd gotten to this new facility with its alien crystalline design he'd been working flat out trying to get information on the state of the nation and the planet.

What little information they'd been able to gather so far was not encouraging. Thanks to the sensors on the orbiting Asgard platforms they'd been able to scan the planet and determine that a grand total of thirty-one cities all across Asia, Europe and North America had been virtually razed to the ground by the orbital bombardment. The death toll was going to be in the hundreds of millions in total and it would only be climbing. As those same sensors reported massive storms beginning to rage all over the planet as the delicate balance of the atmosphere had been badly disrupted by the passage of the Goa'uld plasma blasts. Powerful winds, heavy rain and electrical disturbances were the hallmarks of the storms that were beginning to batter multiple nations; storms that would no doubt kill yet more people all across the world before their fury was spent.

And if that wasn't enough the Santa Anna wind blowing off the Mojave Desert was fanning the fires burning in Los Angeles and surrounding counties triggering the unstoppable elemental force of a firestorm. And the instability on the San Andreas Fault was only getting worse it was only a matter of time before the fault ruptured adding earthquake generated landslides to California's misery and potentially triggering tsunami that would sow havoc all over the Pacific. The tragedy unfolding across the nation and the planet was almost too much for him to contemplate let alone combat – he'd already ordered search parties to begin searching the damaged American cities for survivors but the scale of the task that they would be facing was well enormous. But he knew they had to try.

A knock at the installed door drew his attention and he straightened in his chair as much as he could. "Come in," he called. The door – like everything else Earth made in this facility it looked bizarrely out of place against the blue-grey spun-glass effect of the grown crystal walls – opened and George Hammond appeared.

"What is it, George?" he asked his old friend.

"Mr President we've been able to get back in touch with the SGC," Hammond answered. "Doctor Weir has just contacted us using the emergency subspace radio network."

"What did she have to say?" Hayes asked eager for some good news at last – Lord knew he probably wouldn't be getting much of that for awhile. Especially as they wouldn't really be able to keep the existence of the Stargate and the SGC a secret anymore, not after what had happened today.

"SG-1 has just reported in," Hammond replied sounding relieved that the people he'd commanded for several years were all okay, even Jack would be fine soon enough. "Thor apparently took them to an Ancient facility on Alpha Centauri III so they could use the Stargate there."

"Are you telling me there is another Ancient base practically on our interstellar doorstep?" Hayes asked stunned by that news.

"Apparently so sir," Hammond acknowledged sounding somewhat surprised himself. "And from what Major Carter reported it appears more advanced than the facility in Antarctica which we now believe to not be the lost city but some kind of outpost."

"So the lost city is still lost?"

"It would appear that way yes."

"I suppose that's a good thing," Hayes said with a sigh. "At least with Anubis blown to smithereens we're not going to be locked in a desperate race to find it now. We can take our time and focus on events back here at home. Especially as given what's happened we cannot sensibly keep the Stargate Program a secret anymore."

"I suppose not," Hammond agreed not envying the president for the position Anubis had placed him in. The amount of damage done across the globe was far too much to be explained away with any of their normal cover stories, at least not in any way that would be believed. Plus there was the fact that there were bound to be witnesses all over the world who had either seen the orbiting Ha'tak's in telescopes or seen the gliders and Alkesh that had taken part in the bombardment with their naked eyes. Such things couldn't be hushed up, no matter how much they might wish otherwise.

That left them only with one option, and that was an option that was not likely to be well received by anybody. And that option was to tell the truth about what had happened, who had attacked Earth and why they had; which would also necessitate revealing the existence of the Stargate – something that was not likely to go down well. Though they would probably have the support of the other permanent members of the UN Security Council when the truth was revealed given they'd all officially known about the existence of the Stargates for sometime, the Russians especially. Though thanks to the policies of Hayes predecessor the other Security Council members had not really had any influence on the Stargate and certainly not benefited from it in any way – something he had been planning to change whenever he had the time.

"Did Doctor Weir report anything else," Hayes asked. "And when are SG-1 returning to Earth?"

"They should be returning through the Stargate shortly, Mr President. With the exception of Colonel O'Neill who is currently in the care of the Asgard. And speaking of the Asgard Doctor Weir reported that Sergeant Siler and Doctor Lee are attempting to set up a replacement subspace transceiver on top of Cheyenne Mountain so we can contact both the _Prometheus_ and the Asgard fleet in orbit."

"Didn't you just say we have working subspace radio already?"

"We do sir but its very short range," Hammond explained. "Jacob and Selmak helped us set it up; the transmitters are small and lack the power to punch a signal through to space through all the electromagnetic interference in the atmosphere."

"I see, well I hope Doctor Lee and Sergeant Siler succeed; it would be good to speak to the Asgard given the losses they took attempting to protect us from Anubis," Hayes replied. "What about groundside contact, George? Have we been able to re-establish contact with the rest of the world beyond the line to the SGC?"

"We're making progress there, Mr President. We've been able to get in contact with military facilities on the surface all over the country those that are still somewhat intact are dispatching search squads into the bombed cities to search for survivors."

"I see and what about contact with the rest of the world?"

"We do have contact with some of our allies through the subspace radio system," Hammond replied. "But the interference in the atmosphere is making communication difficult at best. We're trying to tap into the undersea telephone cables to improve our communications but its slow going as a number of points where the cables come ashore are damaged."

"Are there any other options for regaining reliable communication?"

"We did plan for this kind of thing, Mr President. There are a number of modified telecoms satellites stored at the Alpha Site all we need to do is retrieve and deploy them and we'll be able to get some global communication back."

"I see, very well as soon as Sergeant Siler and his people get that subspace relay set up dispatch _Prometheus_ to the Alpha Site to get those satellites."

"Yes sir."

"Has there been any news about Kinsey yet?" Hayes asked and nearly laughed at the bitten a sour lemon look that came onto his old friends face at the mention of the vice president. "I know you don't like him, George and with some very good reasons but he's still the vice president."

"I know but no we've not heard anything from him. It's highly unlikely that his motorcade got the airport before the Goa'uld bombardment began, in which case he's very likely to be dead as reports from returning fighters indicate central Washington has been more or less pulverised by the plasma bombardment. The search teams that are going into Washington have been advised to keep an eye open for any sign of him. Though I would be lying if I said I would shed a tear if he was dead."

"I understand, George. Is there anything else?"

"Only a note that you haven't eaten or drunk anything since this whole situation began," Hammond said. "You need to try and eat something."

"I will later."

"Henry you're not going to do yourself or our people any good if you collapse from glucose deprivation."

Hayes sighed. "I suppose you're right," he said. "Though I doubt you've eaten anything either, George."

"I was just about to go and grab a sandwich and a coffee after delivering that last report. Perhaps you'd care to join me?"

"I suppose the company would be good," Hayes said getting up. "Lead the way then, George."

"Yes sir."

* * *

**Ancient Facility**

**Alpha Centauri III**

**A Short Time Later**

Major Samantha Carter paused at the bottom of another flight of stairs, sat down to catch her breath and ran an arm across her forehead, wiping away the thick beads of sweat that had been starting to gather there. As she had expected going down all these flights of stairs descending deeper and deeper in the Ancient facility was hard going in the heightened gravity of this planet.

"Major Carter," Teal'c said from beside her. Sam looked over to see the big Jaffa warrior was offering her a canteen.

"Thank you, Teal'c," Sam replied accepting it off her friend and team mate before taking a swig. The water despite a slight metallic tang to it felt as wonderful as the finest wine as it went down her parched throat into her belly.

"You are welcome," Teal'c answered. "How many more levels do we have to descend to reach our destination?"

"By my count another sixty-two levels," Sam said with a sigh. "I'll be lucky if I don't drop from exhaustion when we get to the bottom. You would think that someone as intelligent as the Ancients would have heard of such things as elevators."

"Indeed," Teal'c deadpanned.

"It would have made this much easier," Bra'tac agreed as he sat down on the steps feeling every one of his hundred and forty-four years. Though still fit even by Jaffa standards this descent was punishing for a master as old as he was. Most of his peers started to take things easier at his age – passing their wisdom on the younger generation of Jaffa – but he refused to stop, refused to slow down or rest. He could not in good conscience do so until the reign of the false gods was ended and the Goa'uld defeated for good. Something that until recently he thought he would never see in his lifetime but which now was tantalisingly close to becoming a reality.

Sam looked back at the old Jaffa Master and was about to open her mouth to speak with him when her radio crackled for attention. "Sam," Daniel's voice said. "Sam come in please."

Sam toggled her radio. "Yes, Daniel?" she asked.

"I've got some news for you, Sam," Daniel answered. "I've located an internal transporter compartment near to your location. There is another about two hundred and fifty metres from the main power room. From what I can tell from here they are operational."

"That is good news," Sam replied with a sigh of relief. "But how do you know our exact location, Daniel?"

"Because I'm tracking you, I've found the internal sensors," SG-1's resident archaeologist/anthropologist/linguist answered and Sam clearly heard the smile in his voice.

"Great couldn't you have done that like ten levels ago?"

Daniel laughed. "Sorry, Sam but the Ancients were never very good at labelling things," he replied. "Now do you want me to guide you to the transporter station?"

"Yes."

"Okay you need to go back up one level and exit the stairwell," Daniel instructed.

"Okay," Sam replied getting back to her feet.

Beside her Bra'tac did the same with a slight grunt and not for the first time Sam wondered if the ancient Jaffa was beginning to suffer from arthritis considering he no longer had a symbiote to maintain and repair his body but was kept alive with regular doses of tretonin. Knowing it would only embarrass the proud old warrior she didn't say anything but instead ascended the stairs to the level above.

A rust coloured metal door was set into the wall with a small raised panel inset with three glowing blue beside it. Sam waved her hand over the crystals as she'd done at the entrance to the stairwell and with a faint humming noise the door slid obediently open. The corridor beyond was a dark void, until that was Sam, Teal'c and Bra'tac stepped into it – automatically the triangular white crystals in the ceiling that served as lights began powering banishing the darkness under a brilliant rain of photons.

"Okay, Daniel now what," Sam said into her radio.

"Walk forwards down the corridor," Daniel's disembodied voice answered. "After about thirty metres another corridor will branch off from it to the right. Go down there the transport station is at the other end on the right hand side."

"Okay," Sam replied and started walking with both Jaffa following closely behind her. There footsteps echoing off the marble-like material that the floor was made out of and echoed off the copper and tan coloured walls. The total silence of the facility was eerie and every few metres doors and control panels pointed to rooms that from the regular spacing were probably offices or accommodation. _It's like walking through a ghost town,_ Sam thought feeling a shiver go down her spine at the deathly silence, _except without the wind rattling the decaying buildings and making spooky sounds in the process._

In no time at all they reached and went down the turn off that Daniel had indicated for them to go down. At its end it connected to another wider corridor – almost identical to one they had just come down – but set into the right hand side wall was a set of double doors that were almost identical to all the others they'd seen. Almost being the operative term.

The doors were made of the same rust-coloured metallic alloy as all the other doors they had so far seen. But this one was inset with the same panels of coloured crystal that gave the panels a stained glass window effect as the ones leading to Stargate Operations. Not that Sam really got a chance to have a good look at them for as they crossed some invisible threshold the doors slid open revealing a small rectangular compartment beyond. A panel opened on the wall immediately opposite the door opened and an image of the base appeared showing multiple blue dots labelled with Ancient characters.

Calmly Sam entered the box-like compartment, with Bra'tac and Teal'c crowding in behind her making the small compartment feel even smaller than it was. Swallowing a sudden feeling of claustrophobia Sam studied the small map and guessed that the glowing blue points were the locations of other transporter stations before mentally comparing it to the larger map she'd seen on the control rooms master display panel. Then boldly she reached out and touched the dot that seemed to be closest to where she remembered the power centre to be.

Immediately the doors slid closed and everything flared with a brilliant white light, and Sam felt the familiar sensations of being dematerialised then rematerialised again. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation unlike the ice cold, rollercoaster ride feeling of being shot down a wormhole. The white light and the feeling faded away and the doors opened again.

Without comment the three of them piled out of the transporter and found themselves in another corridor. This one looked considerably different to the last one they had been in, it was just as wide but had a darker more industrial look to it. The walls were thickly panelled of some dark brown to black metal and the lights here were more muted and were blue in colour as opposed to the bright white and white-blue light above.

"Okay Daniel I think we're on the level of the power room," Sam said into her radio, "which way?"

"You are on the right level you now need to turn to your right," Daniel answered. "Proceed down that corridor until you come to a T-junction. Turn to the left and follow that corridor, the main power room is at its end."

"Okay," Sam replied and started walking according to Daniel's directions.

* * *

It took another few minutes to reach the main power room from the transporter station. The room was a large circular space occupied by three large consoles. Immediately to the left and right of the entrance were two large control panels, each with a holographic display plate that like the consoles were glowing softly. Beyond the consoles was a large triangular console that dominated the centre of the room. Standing on top of that console – raised from there docking slots were three softly glowing power sources identical to the one that was now powering the Antarctic outpost and allowed them to blast Anubis back to hell where he belonged. Three smaller consoles against the walls – with their displays recessed into said walls completed the room's contents.

Gazing around the room Sam Carter couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. She had expected the main power room to somewhat grander, possibly the control room for some enormous reactor something like the massive neutrino-ion generators that the Asgard used to power their warships, but this seemed to be somewhat anticlimactic. After a moment she shrugged and guessed that the softly glowing yellow-orange crystals were a power source that was both more efficient and more user friendly than neutrino-ion generators just were not as flashy in appearance. _Just what kind of power source are they,_ she thought, _I really must get around to finding out at some point._

Calmly she toggled her radio again. "Okay, Daniel we're here," she said. "The power source appears to be three more of those crystalline power sources we got from Taonas. It looks like they're meant to dock with three slots in a large triangular console but at the moment they're raised out of them."

"That would explain why main power is off then," Daniel answered. "Okay we need to get those things back in their slots, hopefully that will bring main power back online. Try pushing them down, lets see what happens."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Sam replied before signing off. "Bra'tac, Teal'c go to the crystals on the other side of the console," she ordered.

Without comment both Jaffa obeyed while Sam went to the third crystal. "Okay on three push down gently but firmly. Ready?" she asked and got nods of affirmation. "Okay one… two… three."

As three left her mouth Sam pushed down on the crystalline power source. For a moment nothing happened, it remained stubbornly in place. As she pushed harder she felt the crystal shudder slightly before slowly beginning to move downward. Some kind of mechanism took over as the crystal was suddenly yanked away from her hands and disappeared down into the surface of the console. A quick glance up at Teal'c and Bra'tac showed that the crystals they had been pressing on had also disappeared down into the console. For a second nothing more happened then there came an audible thrum of power and all around the readings on the holodisplays changed as the facility began to fully awaken from a ten millennia long slumber.

Sam's radio crackled to life. "You did it, Sam," Daniel's voice said. "Main power is coming back on line."

"Excellent. We'll head back up to you now."

"Okay, Sam. There is a transporter station on this level just outside the Stargate chamber."

"Understood, we'll see you in a few minutes then, Daniel."

"See you in a few minutes, Sam."

As Daniel signed off Sam looked back at Teal'c and Bra'tac. "We should get going," she said.

"Indeed but here is where I must part company with you, Major Carter," Bra'tac replied. "I must return to Chulak there are matters there that require my attention."

Sam nodded in understanding. "Of course we can certainly dial Chulak before Earth," she answered. "What about you, Teal'c? Are you coming back to Earth with me and Daniel or are you going with Bra'tac?"

Teal'c considered for a moment. "I will return to Earth with you, Major Carter," he said.

"Very well," Sam replied. "Come on lets get back up to the control room." The two former First Primes of Apophis nodded in agreement. Sam turned her back on them and walked out heading back towards the transporter with both Jaffa following along behind her.

* * *

**Control Room**

**That Same Time**

After singing off with Sam Daniel sighed and turned his attention back to the master display screen, and watched as the two yellow dots and one white dot representing Sam, Teal'c and Bra'tac began to move away from the main power room. It would be a great pity to leave here, he imagined that there was an awful lot of knowledge in this facilities databanks just waiting to be discovered but they didn't really have a choice. _I'll have a word with Elizabeth later,_ he thought. _See if I can convince her to let us bring a science team back here and a few squads of marines. We really need to secure this place as the last thing we need is some Goa'uld stumbling across it now that there is power._

Moving away from the main display he started to check the other consoles to determine exactly what they controlled. Hopefully they would provide some answers as to why the Ancients had built this enormous facility. Answers that he would be able to include in his report, which would he hoped lead to teams being sent back here to really start probing the bases secrets. Secrets that would likely be invaluable to Earth in the war that was sure to follow as he knew full well that once the shock, grief and pain of the attack had worn off the people of Earth would want revenge on the Goa'uld for hurting them so badly.

As that thought crossed his mind he thought back to his earlier conversation with Elizabeth when gate travel was suspended, before Bra'tac had arrived and dropped the bombshell that Anubis was coming to Earth in force. He remembered what she'd said about how America could not be allowed to carry its history of manifest destiny out to the rest of the galaxy. Something he guilty acknowledged they had been occasionally guilty of doing though he liked to think that SG-1 had been less guilty of it than some of the other SG teams. Silently he had to admit that in away Stargate Command was as culpable in the millions of deaths that had just occurred on Earth as Anubis was. After all if they had left the Stargate well enough alone – or reburied the thing – after the first mission to Abydos that saw the death of Supreme System Lord Ra then they might have never been in this position now. _And maybe I would have still been living happily with Sha're on Abydos,_ he thought feeling a familiar surge of grief, pain and hatred at what had happened to his beloved wife.

Daniel was distracted from his thoughts when he heard the Stargate beginning to dial in from off-world. Racing back to the Stargate control station he studied the controls next to the DHD before pressing one with a symbol on it that translated as 'shield'. With a thrum of power a shimmering silver-white force field appeared around the Stargate – occupying exactly the same position as the iris did on Earth's gate and which probably served the same defensive purpose. The shield flared as the wormhole burst into existence and the unstable vortex found itself confined by the field. In milliseconds the wormhole stabilised into the normal silver-blue puddle effect of an event horizon.

A second later his radio crackled to life. "SG-1 this is Stargate Command please come in," Sergeant Harriman's voice said. "SG-1 this is Stargate Command please come in."

Daniel toggled his radio. "Stargate Command its Daniel I hear you," he said.

"Doctor Jackson its Doctor Weir," Elizabeth's voice answered. "We were expecting you back some time ago. Is there a problem?"

"Not anymore," Daniel replied. "We were about to come back through the gate but when we tried to dial Earth we found there was insufficient power remaining in this places emergency power capacitors for a second connection," he added. "Sam, Teal'c and Bra'tac just went down to the main power room and reconnected the main power source. They're just on their way back to the control room now."

"I understand," Weir answered. "I was just getting concerned by the delay, given how much time has passed since that complex was built I feared you'd run into trouble."

"Not this time," Daniel said with a smile, "though it has happened before as our mission reports have no doubt told you."

"Indeed that's why I had Sergeant Harriman dial you up again. But now that I know everything is alright I'll let you go. Though I do look forward to your debriefing, it should be interesting."

"To quote a certain team mate of mine 'indeed'," Daniel answered. "We will be back shortly, Elizabeth."

"I know you will, Daniel. Weir out."

Daniel sighed as the radio signal cut out and the wormhole disengaged. With a quick command to the console he lowered the gate shield just as one of the lower level doors opened. To disgorge Sam, Teal'c and Bra'tac.

"Everything okay, Daniel," Sam asked as they ascended the stairs back to the control room.

"Everything is fine, Sam. The SGC just dialled back in, Weir was wondering what was keeping us. She thought we'd gone and gotten ourselves into some sort of trouble," Daniel answered.

"Well we have been known to," Sam admitted thinking back on some of the scrapes they had gotten themselves into over the last several years. Scrapes that usually – but didn't always – involve some arrogant parasite with a god complex, appalling fashion sense and a penchant for melodrama.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

"I take it we're to return to Earth immediately," Sam said.

"Yep."

"Okay but first off Bra'tac needs to go back to Chulak so dial it up please, Daniel."

Daniel nodded and began dialling in the familiar sequence of symbols for the world that Bra'tac and Teal'c called home and which was now one of the strongholds of the growing Jaffa Rebellion. As her team-mate dialled Sam went to the edge of the glass-like material that fronted the control room and looked down upon the Stargate. She watched as the newer model gate operated, the constellations of the inner ring chasing each other round before making the chevron's light up. She had to admit that the new design was very sleek and she couldn't help but wonder what other changes the Ancients had made to the system before they vanished either dying of the plague that had ravaged the galaxy towards the end of their reign or ascending to the higher planes of existence.

After a moment the wormhole burst into existence, the unstable vortex of the activating Stargate shooting halfway across the chamber before snapping back into the gate and stabilising into the normal shimmering silver-blue event horizon. Whatever changes and advances the Ancients had made to the system obviously didn't affect the Stargates operation in the slightest. Still she would like to get a look at the Stargates operating system, see if it was any different to the one she was already familiar with.

Sam shook off that thought as Bra'tac moved to the top of the ornate stairs down from the mezzanine to the floor of the gate room. However instead of descending the steps Bra'tac paused, seemed to think for a moment, and then turned to look back at them.

"I will inform the others about the destruction of Anubis forces over Earth," he said and Sam and Daniel knew he was referring to the rest of the Rebel Jaffa. "It will be most welcome news to all Jaffa who believe in our cause and further proof that even Goa'uld as powerful as Anubis are not the all powerful gods they claim to be. It may even bring more Jaffa over to our cause."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed knowing that with every powerful Goa'uld who fell another chip was made in the armour of divinity that the Goa'uld had built around them and used to enslave dozens of species across this galaxy for thousands of years. The more chinks they opened in the System Lords armour then the harder and harder it became for even the most stubborn of Jaffa to continue to insist that the Goa'uld were all knowing, all powerful gods deserving of their worship and total obedience. Eventually enough Jaffa would believe to end the reign of the false gods and free the galaxy forever.

"I wish you the best of luck, Bra'tac," Sam said. Daniel nodded in agreement.

"And I you, Major Carter," Bra'tac replied. "You're people have a long hard road of rebuilding ahead of you."

"Don't count us out yet," Daniel answered. "Yes Anubis has hurt us badly, but he didn't succeed in knocking us down and keeping us down."

"Daniel's right," Sam added. "We'll be back on our feet before you know it, and when we get back up the Goa'uld will be going down. If they thought we were bad before they'll be in for a very nasty shock, our people will want revenge, will want justice for all those who've died in the attack. No matter how long it takes us the reign of the Goa'uld will end."

A smile graced Bra'tac's old features. "Then I look forward to the next time we join forces against the false gods," he said with a slight polite bow of genuine respect.

Before turning and walking down the steps and across to the Stargate. Bra'tac paused again just before the event horizon, took one last look at the Ancient facility. He had a feeling that someday soon this place would become a major stronghold in the war against the System Lords. Then he turned back to the Stargate and walked into the event horizon and felt the familiar wave of coldness wash over him as his body was dematerialised and shot thousands of light years through subspace to Chulak.

* * *

Daniel, Sam and Teal'c watched silently as Bra'tac walked through the wormholes event horizon and disappeared from Alpha Centauri. For a few moments the Stargate remained active before shutting down the event horizon of the wormhole evaporating as if it had never been.

"We should get going ourselves, Sam," Daniel pointed out.

Sam sighed. "I know," she replied. "Though I have to admit I'm dreading what we're going back to."

"I know the feeling," Daniel admitted. "But much as we might want and like to we cannot stay here, we have to go back."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

Sam sighed again. "Let's get going then," she said. "Daniel see if you can get this place to power down as much as possible without deactivating main power. Meanwhile I'll dial Earth."

"Okay, Sam," Daniel replied and went to the console that seemed to govern this vast facilities power systems. For a few moments he studied the console, before a strange instinct surfaced from somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind and told him just what he needed to do.

Carefully he manipulated the crystal switches, knobs, keys and slides into the configuration that he wanted, telling the facilities main computer to reduce primary power to a minimum and divert the bulk of current power output into recharging the near depleted back up capacitors. Around the control room screens and consoles flickered then returned to a dormant state, while all around the main lights went out leaving only the blue back up light crystals still glowing.

While Daniel worked Sam began entering Earth's address into the control panel that served as the facilities DHD. Below them the Stargate whirred and hummed as the constellation representations chased each other around the unmoving inner ring lighting up the chevrons in sequence with a speed that the older gates spread across this galaxy couldn't hope to match. In seconds the familiar puddle of water effect of a wormhole event horizon filled the centre of the gate waiting to instantly transport them from Alpha Centauri III to Earth.

"Ready," Sam asked glancing at her team mates and receiving nods of affirmation. As calmly as she could given the circumstances of the Earth they would be returning to, Sam slid back the sleeve of her right arm and with her left hand typed in SG-1's security code into the GDO strapped to her forearm sending a encrypted radio signal through the event horizon to the SGC. After a few seconds the device bleeped as at received a signal back confirming that the iris was open and that they were clear to come through.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly Sam led the way down the steps, across the gate room floor and through the active Stargate. Daniel found himself the last one in line to go through so he paused for a moment and looked around at the facility. He would definitely come back here as soon as he could instinct or rather the Ancient knowledge buried in his subconscious mind told him that while this place was only a stepping stone on the way to Atlantis it held a great many secrets; secrets that he could easily spend the rest of his life unravelling, if he was allowed to that was. Anubis' attack on Earth meant that for now the future was very much in doubt.

After committing the view of the gate room to memory, Daniel turned around and with the confidence of the experienced gate traveller that he was, walked through the Stargate…

…and emerged at the SGC, following Sam and Teal'c down the embarkation ramp. After the elegance of the Ancient facility with its walls of copper and tan coloured metal and inset crystalline lights the bare concrete walls of the SGC was a very sharp and depressing contrast.

Though he was used to it Daniel did still sometimes wish the penny pushers who'd overseen construction of this facility during the height of the Cold War had paid slightly more attention to aesthetics. Hell he could say the same for those who'd been in charge of bringing the facility back online and converting it from an old missile engine test facility into a research facility/military base after Catherine Langford got permission to restart research into the Stargate nearly fifteen years ago. _I hope she's alright,_ Daniel thought thinking of Catherine and Ernest knowing they lived in a suburb of Colorado Springs.

Doctor Weir stood waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp and Daniel noticed how tired she looked, how worn out. He couldn't help but feel more than a twinge of sympathy for her; she'd been through quite a bit in the last few days having had her whole world literally turned upside down. And now to top it off she like the rest of them was having to deal with the aftermath of a devastating attack by the forces of the Goa'uld Anubis.

"Welcome back," Weir said to them.

"Thank you, ma'am," Sam Carter replied as Weir looked over her shoulder and belatedly noticed that one of the party was missing besides Colonel O'Neill.

"Where is Master Bra'tac," she asked in concern. Though she hadn't really met Bra'tac beyond when he'd come to warn them about Anubis she got the feeling that the old Jaffa was someone she really wanted to get to know. She hoped nothing bad had happened to him before she ever got a chance to know him.

"He has returned to Chulak, Doctor Weir," Teal'c replied bowing his head briefly in a respectful gesture. "He will be informing all Jaffa who believe in the cause of freedom of what has happened in orbit this day. The destruction of Anubis is a great victory that will serve to convince more Jaffa to join our mutual cause in overthrowing the false gods."

"You will have to forgive me if I don't celebrate this great victory, Teal'c," Weir answered. "Far too many of our people have died due to the bombardment and are still dying in the smouldering ruins to warrant celebration."

"I understand, Doctor Weir," Teal'c responded. "The Goa'uld have perpetrated a great atrocity here this day."

"I think we can all agree on that one, Teal'c."

"Indeed."

"Doctor Weir has there been any news of survivors," Sam asked.

Weir shook her head. "Not yet I'm afraid," she replied. "Though our communications with the outside world are somewhat sporadic at the moment, so it doesn't mean much, and on that note I have a favour to ask you Major."

"Oh?"

"Yes Sergeant Siler and Doctor Lee are attempting to set up a new subspace transmitter on top of the mountain to replace the one the Goa'uld destroyed. Once its up and running we'll be able to send the _Prometheus_ to the Alpha Site to collect some replacement orbital satellites. Its slow going at the moment though, they could do with your help."

Sam nodded in understanding. Setting up a subspace transmitter was hard work, she still clearly remembered the fun they had had the last time. "I'll get changed into the appropriate gear and head straight up there," she replied already starting to think of what precisely needed to be done to get the new subspace antenna working.

"Thank you." Sam nodded again and hurriedly left the gate room to get out of her field combat gear into a set of coveralls and to exchange her P90, tac vest and zat for some tools and diagnostic equipment.

Daniel watched her go then turned his attention back to Doctor Weir. "What can me and Teal'c do," he asked.

Weir gave a small smile. "First you can get changed," she said. "Then you can come to my office and start filling me in on these two Ancient facilities that you've discovered today."

A faint smile appeared on Daniel's own face. "Yes ma'am," he replied, inwardly bouncing with excitement. Maybe just maybe he would be able to convince Doctor Weir to let him take some scientists back to the Alpha Centauri facility to start probing its many secrets. Weir grinned back before leaving the embarkation room.

As he had with Sam Daniel watched her go, before following her with Teal'c bringing up the rear. Already he was beginning to work out just what he was going to say to Elizabeth Weir about the Antarctic Outpost and the Alpha Centauri facility. He had a feeling that both of them were going to be very important to the future of Earth, that the secrets the concealed were going to change the world even more than it had already changed. Weather the change would be for good or for ill he couldn't say only time would tell.

It always did.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Ruins of Washington DC **

**A Short Time Later**

Major John Sheppard resisted the impulse to groan in annoyance as the elements continued to conspire against him, Melissa Sumner and her children, Leon and Megan, in their quest to get out of the smouldering hell that had once been Washington DC. Not only was the wind still blowing strongly across the shattered city, fanning the flames and threatening to cause a firestorm but now he could feel bits of moisture hitting him as it began to rain.

But it was not ordinary rain.

The raindrops weren't clear, weren't pure water as they normally were, instead they were a dull brown colour – contaminated with soot, dust and who knew what else from the thick, acrid smoke being put out by the fires and mingling with the storm clouds. John wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the rain was toxic – though hopefully only if you were foolish enough to drink it. It would be a cruel irony to survive the alien attack, survive being shot down only to die of poisoning.

Within moments the rain turned from a light brown drizzle to a full force downpour, massive droplets of water striking the ground with such force that they seemed to rebound upwards before spreading their contents over the abused earth, concrete and asphalt. The sudden transformation of the rain from drizzle to raging torrent smashing into the city with stinging force had two immediate effects.

The first was within moments of the really heavy rain beginning some of the flames that were trying to turn the city into a raging inferno began to flicker and die as the falling water broke one side of the triangle that all fires needed to burn. The second – and more important one to Sheppard and the Sumner's – was it started soaking them, despite the fact that they were wearing coats the rain was so heavy that the coats were next to useless.

"Major Sheppard," Melissa called out having to raise her voice to be heard over the roaring of the rain, the howling of the wind and the hissing of the steam that was being created as the fires began dying. John turned and looked back at her to see how miserable she and the children looked. "We can't stay out here in this," she added.

"Your right we need to find some shelter," John replied looking around for any building that appeared to be intact enough to offer them some protection from the deluge. Unfortunately there was none in sight most of the buildings in this street were residential apartment blocks that like the rest of the city hadn't weathered the bombardment well at all. Most of them had been completely levelled, though one or two still stood, reduced to crumpled walls standing forlornly in a sea of devastation. From the thoroughness of the buildings destruction John guessed that they had a) either been shoddily constructed, or b) one of the energy blasts from orbit had impacted very close by, the thermal blast and concussion wave of the resultant explosion at such a close range having turned the buildings into heaps of rubble.

Glancing back at Melissa he shrugged. "I'm sorry but I can't see anywhere we can shelter," he said. "All the buildings in this street are levelled."

"Terrific," Melissa replied frowning and having to raise her voice slightly to be heard over the roaring of the wind and the rain. Despite her raincoat she was steadily getting soaked by the ferocious downpour and while that was uncomfortable it was not what was concerning her. What she was worried about were her children and what effects any toxins present in the discoloured, tacky feeling rain could have on them. Even if the rain weren't so obviously contaminated she would have worried about them catching cold if they were out in it to long. Especially Megan who had only recently recovered from a particularly nasty summer cold, the last thing she or Marshall needed was for Megan to get sick again.

Marshall.

Melissa felt her gut twist in pain and fear at the thought of her husband. At the moment she didn't know if he was alive or dead, if Stargate Command had been destroyed by the Goa'uld plasma bombardment or if it had survived, assuming he was at Stargate Command and not off world or somewhere else on Earth – she never quite knew where Marshall was going to be stationed at from one month to the next. And she realised that even if the SGC was intact Marshall would have no way of knowing if they were alive or dead. Something that she knew would terrify him as Melissa was fully aware of how much he loved them all, especially his children, and how loosing any of them would destroy him more effectively than a bullet ever could. _Maybe when we get to whichever airbase, Major Sheppard is stationed at I'll be able to enquire about, Marshall,_ she thought.

The faint sounds of words penetrated her awareness and she looked up at Major Sheppard to see that he was looking at her in concern. "I'm sorry what did you say," she said.

"I said we should keep going," John repeated. "With luck we'll be able to find somewhere to shelter soon. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I was just thinking about my husband."

John nodded in understanding. He knew where she was coming from as he would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about his own family. While he hadn't spoken to his father or his older brother in years they were still his relatives. Despite the distance between them he was worried about them, worried if they had been hurt or worse killed in the attack – assuming other cities had been hammered from space by their unknown assailants besides Washington DC.

"I understand," he said. "Come on let's go and find somewhere to shelter from this downpour – before we get anymore wet."

"You won't get any argument from us there," Melissa replied with a smile, "right kids?"

"Right, mom," Leon agreed.

"Right, mommy," Megan added huddling close to her mothers side.

John smiled and started walking again, making his way down the debris strewn street hoping against hope that they would soon find somewhere to shelter from the storm, hopefully before they were all completely soaked through to the skin. Part of him doubted that they would, but he forced that part down, determined to keep as optimistic as possible. It wasn't easy considering all the devastation that there was around them. But he was determined to try as the only alternative would be to give into despair.

And that was unacceptable.

* * *

**Top of Cheyenne Mountain **

**That Same Time**

Major Samantha Carter smiled in relief as the lights on the master display panel for the new subspace transmitter lit up, indicating that the array was receiving power. Between them herself, Dr Lee and Sergeant Siler had finally gotten the replacement array to accept power – it had not been easy many of the conduits that had connected the array to its power source had been damaged. Damaged as in half melted by the plasma bolt from space that had struck and destroyed the original array within moments of the SGC starting to transmit a planetary distress call to the Asgard – a vain attempt by the forces of Anubis to take out the array before the message was completed.

"That's it we've got power," she said getting out from the base of the array and closing the master panel, before tapping her radio. "Control room this is Major Carter, the subspace antenna is powering up, please run a test program."

"Confirmed, major," Sergeant Walter Harriman answered from the control room. "Running test program now."

"Please let the damned thing work this time," Siler muttered softly. Sam smiled and nodded in agreement setting up the new array had been difficult and demanding work. The fact that there was a very strong wind blowing across the mountain hadn't helped matters – not only because it had constantly tried to blow them all over but because the wind was coming from the direction of Colorado Springs and stunk of fire and death. Something that was disconcerting to say the least and was distracting as it made minds wander – worrying about the friends and family that they all had in the city, friends and family whose fate was still terrifyingly unknown to them.

It was at that moment that over the still open radio link Sam heard what sounded like an explosion somewhere in the SGC that echoed into the control room. The few lights glowing on the base of the subspace antenna flickered once then died as the supply of power from Stargate Command vanished.

"Walter what was that," Sam asked into her radio.

"We've lost main power," Walter answered over the background sounds of chaos in the control room as the staff on duty tried to figure out what had gone wrong. "Emergency naquada generators aren't kicking in. We've only got back up batteries right now."

"Great that means we can't get down there to see what's going on," Lee muttered listening in to the communication knowing that without main or primary backup power none of the lifts to Stargate Command would be working. The back up batteries were after all a hold over from the Cold War and the SGC's previous existence as a ballistic missile testing facility, they would only provide enough power for the emergency lights and the more basic of their computer systems.

"It sounds like something has gone wrong with the main panel, it must have been damaged by the shock of the original array being taken out by the Goa'uld," Siler said his technical mind already analysing what had happened and coming up with a likely scenario to explain the loss of power. The plasma blast from the Goa'uld that had obliterated the original subspace antenna must have sent an electromagnetic shockwave down through the power conduits, a shockwave that had damaged critical circuits in the main power vault. The stress of powering up the replacement array had proven too great for the damaged circuits and they'd blown out.

"Any idea when you'll get power back, Walter," Sam asked into her radio, guessing herself what had happened and mentally kicking herself for not thinking to check the main panels in the power vaults for damage before coming up here. If she had thought to check them then she would have likely been able to prevent their current situation from having occurred, as it was because of her oversight the SGC was vulnerable. Without power from either the main generators or the backup naquada generators there would be no power to any of the security systems or Stargate operation systems – like the iris. If it was open like it routinely was when there was no one scheduled to use the gate then any enemy dialling in from off world would be able to get through with virtually no opposition.

"Lieutenant Hailey is heading down to the power vault now," Walter answered. "We should get some power back shortly."

"Understood keep us appraised, Walter," Sam instructed.

"Yes ma'am."

"Great now what do we do," Lee asked as Sam signed off with Walter.

"The only thing that we can do," Sam replied. "We wait and hope it doesn't take long to switch over to the emergency naquada generators, though that should have happened automatically."

"Not if there is damage to the main boards," Siler reminded her. "It could have tripped the surge protectors when the automatic system tried to switch over to the naquada generators."

"It its only that then we shouldn't be stuck up here twiddling our thumbs for long," Sam answered knowing that bypassing blown surge protectors wouldn't take very long at all. Especially for someone as intelligent and as resourceful as Jennifer Hailey – who'd come along way from the disrespectful, resentful cadet that Sam had met at the Air Force Academy a few years ago and taken under her wing so to speak.

"We better hope it is otherwise we could be stuck up here for awhile," Lee said softly before sitting down and waiting to see how long it would be for power to come back on. "I wish I could be down there helping her."

"I know, Bill I feel the same but there is nothing we can do," Siler answered and got a nod of agreement from Sam. After all Siler was right there was nothing that they could do to help Jennifer Hailey get power back from here. All they could do was to sit here and wait however frustrating it was.

* * *

**Stargate Command**

Lieutenant Jennifer Hailey accompanied by several technicians from Sergeant Siler's unit hurried through the dim, tubular concrete corridors of the SGC towards the main power vault. With the base on emergency battery power only the corridors were lit by dim red emergency lighting which made it very hard to see where she was going. She had to navigate her way to the power vault more through memory than anything else. It was therefore a good thing that she had a good memory for most things to back up her naturally high intelligence.

Even with the directions provided by her memory getting to the main power vault from the control room was taking quite some time; with none of the bases elevators working due to lack of sufficient power she was having to use the stairs to get between the many levels of the facility. _I should run these stairs more often,_ she thought feeling sweat on her prow as she hurried down the flights of steep steps as quickly as she could without overbalancing and falling _it's certainly a much better cardio exercise than the treadmill and I'm sure I can talk Grogan into doing it with me considering how much of a fitness nut he is._

Despite the situation a faint smile twigged at the corners of her mouth as she thought a little about Lieutenant Carl Grogan. They had developed a strong friendship over the last few years – though they'd had little patience for each other when they first met when they went through the trials to see if they could join Stargate Command. A friendship that they would both like to take further but were forbidden to do so by regulations, though it was good to know that they weren't the only ones frustrated in that regard by outdated Air Force regulations on fraternisation. One only had to look at Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter – and see the looks they sometimes gave each other when they thought no one was looking – its was quite well known among SGC personnel that the Colonel and the Major had feelings of the romantic nature for each other but were forbidden to act upon them.

_Not that regs stop me and Carl,_ she thought thinking of some of the things they got up to when off base and off duty when they could put the soldier parts of their personalities – and all the restrictions that bound that part of themselves – in their boxes and just be Carl Grogan and Jennifer Hailey. A faint smile teased her lips as she remembered there last leave when she'd woken up most mornings to find Carl in bed next to her with his strong arms holding her close. The mere thought of that memory – and how right waking up next to Carl had felt – was enough to make her heart skip a beat or two.

Shaking off her thoughts of her illicit boyfriend Jennifer came to the level she was searching for – though it was hard to make out the number on the door due to the dim red light – and pushed open the door. Immediately she was struck by a wave of stench that made her gag, the smell was the awful acrid stink of burnt plastic, singed circuitry and hot metal. Pushing down the bile that threatened to rise in her throat she began to make her way to the power vault down the corridor and around the corner from the emergency stairwell, the technicians bringing up the rear. A thin haze of dull grey-blue smoke hung in the air and seeing it Jennifer frowned in concern before making her way down the corridor to the power vault, dismay sunk upon her like a smothering blanket as her destination came in sight.

Beyond the metal mesh fence and door that separated the power vault from the rest of the base was a scene that would give any electrician a nightmare. The main panel that controlled the supply of power to the whole base was burnt, metal warped and scorched by an electrical fire. Nearby two side panels continued to smoke as the wiring and circuitry inside was being consumed by a fire they couldn't see. Off to the side connected to a separate panel the naquada generators sat perfectly fine as was the panel they were connected to – though all its lights glowed red indicating that power was not getting from the softly glowing and humming generators to the bases power grid.

"Oh great," Jennifer said seeing the absolute mess. "Grab some fire extinguishers," she said to the airmen behind her. "It looks like we have a major mess to somehow sort out here."

"Yes lieutenant," one of the airman answered and three of them broke away to go and retrieve the right kind of extinguisher to deal with an electrical fire.

"The rest of you go and raid the electronics storeroom," Jennifer ordered. "Get everything we could possibly need to set up a bypass of the main panel."

"Yes ma'am," one of the remaining airmen answered before they all disappeared to their tasks leaving Jennifer standing there alone, gazing in dismay at the blown main panel and the softly smoking ones next to it.

There was no doubt in her mind that beneath their metal covers flames from the blown out system was consuming the shorted out wiring and circuitry inside. Which would make it that much more difficult to restore power to the rest of the SGC let alone get enough power up to the subspace transceiver to punch a message through the electromagnetic interference in the atmosphere to where the _Prometheus _was sharing geostationary orbit with a armada of Asgard warships. _I'll think of something,_ Jennifer thought with a sigh before beginning to work out just how much she needed to do, or somehow persuade to work, to get main power back. It would be difficult but not impossible. As if there was one thing she had learned in the last two years here at Stargate Command it was that nothing was impossible.

* * *

**Asgard Science Vessel Daniel Jackson **

**A Short Time Later**

Heimdall sat quiet and thoughtful behind the main console of his lab on the _Daniel Jackson_ as accompanied by several identical ships, the science cruiser made it was to the Tau'ri homeworld. He didn't mind taking time out from his genetic research to attend to this mission of mercy to Earth; it was a small thing he could do to repay the debt he owed them after all. If Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter and Teal'c had not come to his laboratory on Adara II to rescue him then all his research – and the potential for a cure to the genetic degradation that was destroying his race far more subtly and effectively than the Replicators ever could – would have long ago fallen into the hands of Anubis. Heimdall shuddered to think what that particular Goa'uld – the worst tyrant his evil parasitic kind had ever spawned – would have perverted his research into.

Thanks in no small part to the actions of the – at the time – diminished SG-1 and a timely intervention by Freyr commanding three O'Neill-class battleships the nightmare scenario of Anubis getting his research had been averted. Now he had a chance to help them and there worlds biosphere recover from the devastation that had been unleashed upon it by Anubis. Sitting in the _Daniel Jackson's_ forward cargo hold were several devices that together with there fellows on the other science ships would be able to stabilise the Earth's atmosphere and filter out the worst of the contaminants blasted into the stratosphere by the Goa'uld bombardment.

_If only we could do more,_ Heimdall thought, knowing there were restrictions on what they could do to help Earth without risking the whole Protected Planets Treaty. Technically speaking Heimdall knew his people shouldn't be helping Earth at all, but the Goa'uld System Lords could hardly complain as they hadn't done anything to really stop Anubis violating the treaty. An action that Heimdall knew had already provoked a strong reaction from the High Council and the Asgard Fleet. Hopefully the object lesson of the destruction of some of Anubis' key facilities would remind the System Lords of the punishment the Asgard could dish out to those who crossed them.

The console in front of him chirped slightly and Heimdall checked the displays to find that the _Daniel Jackson_ was coming up on the Tau'ri star system. Manipulating the control stones Heimdall reduced the amount of power flowing from the science cruisers twin neutrino-ion generators to the hyperdrive – slowing the ship down so as not to overshoot the system. A moment later a new runic symbol appeared on his displays and he manipulated the control stones again, instructing the ship to drop back into normal space and instructing the rest of the science squadron to do the same.

* * *

Just outside the orbit of the airless grey, meteor scared world that was Earth's solo moon space began to warp and distort. The barrier between normal space-time and the subspace domains being abruptly subjected to immense strain, the fabric of space time split apart and the swirling aquamarine vortex of a hyperspace window burst into existence.

Like bullets from a gun eight ships emerged from the hyperspace window, their outlines blurred and indistinct due to the optical distortion caused by hyperspace inertia. Advanced systems on the eight ships locked onto the edges of the hyperspace window with a subspace field which acted somewhat like an ocean going ships anchor chain allowing the ships to rapidly slow down. Optical distortion vanished revealing the sleek, silver-white forms of eight Asgard Jackson-class science cruisers. Deceleration manoeuvres completed the hyperdrives of the newly arrived ships released their subspace anchors allowing the hyperspace window to fold closed and vanish as if it had never been.

For a few moments the eight ships hung silent in space, then their sophisticated inertialess engines powered up and maintaining a perfect formation the ships began to move. Gliding around the dark side of Earth's moon into the light, making Earth become visible in front of them – gleaming like brilliant blue, green, brown and white jewel in a sea of stars. From a distance Earth looked peaceful and serene – it was only as the ships got closer that they began to see the telltale signs that all was not well. Monster storms were raging across many of the planets continents – evidence of the massive atmospheric disruption caused by nearly fifteen minutes of intense plasma bombardment. Dust and debris hung in the air above the storm clouds – diffusing incoming solar radiation, dust and debris that if it wasn't removed would shut out a great deal of the warming radiation of Sol causing massive global cooling.

Sitting in orbit of the Earth the combined fleets of Thor and Freyr stood in silent vigil, protecting the wounded world and its people from further harm should another Goa'uld fleet arrive to finish what Anubis had began. The science cruisers – tiny in comparison to the huge O'Neill-class battleships and Beliskner-class battlecruisers – gracefully joined the formation of their larger brethren, ready to do there part in helping Earth recover from the effects of the Goa'uld bombardment.

* * *

**Asgard Science Vessel Daniel Jackson**

Heimdall came as close to frowning as an Asgard could as he studied the information being provided by his ships sensors. Earth was even worse off than it looked from space, the storms visibly raging over most of its landmass – courtesy of the intense atmospheric ionisation/disruption caused by nearly fifteen minutes of intense plasma bombardment – were only the tip of a very big iceberg.

The sensors revealed that there were very high amounts of dust and debris in the atmosphere from the bombardment, debris that was spreading rapidly across the planet as the high altitude winds – Heimdall believed the Tau'ri referred to them as jet streams – blew it far and wide. He estimated that within two days the fallout from the bombardment would completely envelop the planet and would be thick enough to deflect a considerable amount of sunlight back out into space, which would cause the planet to rapidly cool down with potentially catastrophic consequences. Though there were other contaminants in the atmosphere as well, some of them dangerous chemical compounds – though what they were doing in the planets atmosphere Heimdall really didn't know, though they were apparently causing damage to the planets environment.

Fortunately it would be easy enough to deal with. The devices Heimdall and his fellow scientists had brought with them were more than capable of dealing with the atmospheric contaminants. Though another thing that was causing him concern was something he couldn't deal with – there was a type-three tectonic disturbance in progress on one part of the North American landmass, one of considerable force. At any time a tectonic disturbance of the type and strength the sensors were registering would have been damaging, but with cities in the area already in flames it was only going to make the situation worse. Heimdall wished he could do something about it but the Asgard had little experience with plate tectonics as their now destroyed homeworld had never suffered from such things, they'd only encountered it on other worlds, certainly they had no technology to really dampen down its effects.

Heimdall shook his head slightly, feeling sympathy for all those Humans on the planet below, especially those that would be affected by the now fading disturbance. They'd already endured great suffering at the hands of one of the most vicious Goa'uld's in history, now they would have to cope with a rebellion by one of their own planets fault lines. A rebellion that his sensors confirmed had inflicted even more damage causing several large landslides into the ocean, sensors were already tracking multiple tsunamis rippling out across the ocean from the points where millions of tonnes of soil, sand and rock had detached from cliffs and plunged into the sea. Heimdall sadly shook his head knowing that those tsunamis would inflict death and destruction wherever they made landfall – yet more innocent blood to go on the hands of the Goa'uld. _If I am successful in my endeavours to solve our physiological degeneration then we will be able to get into a situation where we can at last rid this galaxy of the Goa'uld System Lords as we should have done thousands of years ago,_ Heimdall thought, _and bring justice to all those they have killed._

A soft chime and the sudden flashing of a rune brought Heimdall out of his thoughts. Thor was hailing him from the _Jack O'Neill_, no doubt the Supreme Commander wanted to know his status and if they were ready to proceed with their mission. Manipulating the control stones on the console again Heimdall answered the hail. Immediately a holographic screen snapped into existence in front of the console bringing in a feed from the _Jack O'Neill's_ bridge, where Thor sat proudly in his command throne.

"Greetings, Heimdall," Thor said. "It is good to see you again, even in circumstances such as these."

"Greetings, Thor," Heimdall replied. "It is good to see you to, at least this time we are not under threat from the Goa'uld."

"Indeed. What is your status?"

"The atmospheric stabiliser probes are ready to launch," Heimdall answered as he manipulated the control stones on his console, instructing the _Daniel Jackson's _computer to carry out a specific task that would be vital to the probes success. "I am currently working out the optimal dispersion pattern to clear the atmosphere in the shortest possible time."

Thor nodded in a subtle fashion that would have been all but undetectable to anyone other than another Asgard. "Understood, proceed as soon as you are ready," Thor instructed.

"Understood," Heimdall replied before breaking contact with Thor and continuing with his work. Determining the correct deployment pattern for the atmospheric stabilisers was relatively easy and within a few more seconds he had established the pattern and sent it to the other science cruisers, along with a command to link their probe launching systems to the _Daniel Jackson's_.

A small window opened on the holographic screen floating in front of him as one by one the other seven science cruisers signalled readiness and the computer core confirmed that the interlink was secure and ready. Determined to get this right the first time Heimdall checked his calculations again. Once he was satisfied that all was ready Heimdall gave the command to the computer to launch and immediately the lights in the control room dimmed ever so slightly as power was transferred to the launching mechanisms.

* * *

For a few moments the _Daniel Jackson_ remained silent in space, flanked to port and starboard by the larger forms of its warship cousins. Then the smaller ship – though that was only in comparison to the battlecruisers and battleships as the Jackson-class ships themselves were close on a thousand metres long – came alive. A hatch on the underside of the ships forward hull – just behind the forward particle cannon array, as even science cruisers weren't defenceless – opened and one after another several silver sphere's, each one sixty-metres in diameter, dropped clear.

Additional spheres dropped clear of all the other seven Jackson-class science cruisers, before speeding down into the atmosphere and coming to a halt just above the stratosphere. With effortless grace that was the hallmark of Asgard propulsion technology the fifty-six probes began to spread out till they encircled the planet. As soon as their limited computer minds determined that they were in the optimum positions as identified by Heimdall the probes began powering up to carry out their primary function.

Small hatches opened in the silvery-white surface of each probe and jets of a brilliant white gas began to emerge causing the probes to begin rotating at increasing speed while also spreading the mist rapidly. Contained within the mist were billions upon billons of tiny nanites – each only a few microns in size – that rapidly began replicating as they spread out from their origin points. A process that went on and on for several minutes as the nanites clouds spread throughout the Earths atmosphere as phase one of the atmospheric reclamation process completed itself.

With phase one completed the rapidly spinning probes began to glow as a tremendous energy charge built up, wrapping their hulls in a shimmering silver-blue glow like an intense aura. The glow grew brighter and brighter as the charge of energy built up, before with breath-taking suddenness the energy snapped away from the surface of the probes and began to spread through the atmosphere – energising the nanites. On and on the glow spread until the whole of the Earth seemed to be enveloped in a glowing silver-blue aura. Faint particles of golden light began to appear as the nanites began their work of cleaning the atmosphere and sending the contaminants back to the probes for later disposal.

The golden light was dim at first, outshone by the energy field being put out by the probes, but it quickly began to get brighter as more and more nanites began reacting with the contaminants, quickly beginning the process of cleaning the atmosphere. Simultaneously the silver-blue energy field brightened slightly as the technology of the Asgard began to process of stabilising the Earths atmosphere, eliminating the ionising radiation left behind by the Goa'uld's plasma weapons.

On the ground the effects quickly began to be felt.

* * *

**Ruins of Washington DC**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Major John Sheppard resisted the impulse to groan in annoyance as he took another step and heard an increasingly familiar squishing noise. Despite the heavy duty military boots that were a part of his flying gear his socks and feet – like the rest of him – had become thoroughly and utterly drenched by the unceasing downpour falling on the ruins of Washington DC. Despite their best efforts he and the Sumner family had not been able to find a place to shelter from the storm, much of this part of Washington was residential after all and few buildings had survived the bombardment from space.

The upshot of the inability to find shelter was the fact that all four of them were completely and utterly miserable. And that they would all get Oscar nominations for portraying the roles of drowned rats. John supposed the only vaguely good side of the continuous heavy rainfall was the fact that as far as he could see all the fires had been extinguished. There was now no danger of a firestorm burning what was left of Washington DC to the ground and incidentally incinerating anymore survivors in the process. _The other survivors are more likely to drown now than burn,_ John thought, _somehow I don't think that is much of an improvement._

It was at that moment that the rain abruptly just stopped and daylight returned, or rather seemed to.

Stopping in shock, John brushed some of his soaking wet, raven-coloured hair out of his eyes, and looked up. To see that the underside of the storm and fallout clouds was glowing with a deep, golden light, it pulsed and flowed like liquid – and provided more than enough light to see by. It was beautiful, it was incredible.

It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

"What is it?" Melissa Sumner abruptly said from beside him making him almost jump out of his skin as he hadn't heard her approach. Glancing over John saw Melissa and her two children staring up at the lightshow above them in shock and awe. He couldn't blame them. Somehow he knew that what they were seeing wouldn't harm them, though it was nothing that had ever been seen before by Human eyes.

"Damned if I know," John replied looking back up at the glowing aura. "Whatever it is its beautiful."

"It is that," Melissa agreed as the golden glow grew brighter as it danced and flowed across the sky like some exotic version of the aurora borealis.

"What's happening mommy," Megan asked fearfully hugging close to her mother's right leg. On their mothers other side Leon was trying to look strong and unconcerned but was failing miserably. Like his little sister Leon Sumner was frightened by the strange, shimmering glow in the sky – despite what his father said about how he should be strong, how he shouldn't let fear rule him, he couldn't help but be terrified. The urge to copy Megan and grab onto his mothers leg was almost overpowering.

"I don't know baby," Melissa answered as the glow grew brighter still, so it became difficult to look at and forced them all to look away.

"We should keep going," John said speaking up. "We need to find our way out of this city."

"The freeway shouldn't be that far from here," Melissa agreed. "We should be able to get a vehicle there. Assuming I'm right and the freeway is close by its hard as hell to find anything now, all the land marks have disappeared."

"I know what you mean," John replied having known this city quite well from his childhood and being dragged here by his father numerous times before he'd decided to go and join the air force. A career choice that Patrick Sheppard didn't agree with as he'd had his heart set on John following him into Sheppard Industries just like his older brother had, they hadn't really spoken since then – not without shouting at each other anyway. He'd been here enough times to know his way around his nation's capital – but not now. With Washington DC reduced to rubble he might as well have been in a city on another planet, the total lack of landmarks made it next to impossible to be sure exactly where they were in relation to where they had been.

"Come on lets get going," he said with a sigh.

"I don't want to walk anymore," Megan moaned drawing a nod of agreement from her brother.

"I know, sweetie," Melissa replied turning to her daughter and squatting down to Megan's eye level. "But we have to keep going; we should find some transport soon. Can you keep going for me please?" Megan nodded reluctantly. "Good girl," Melissa said standing back up and nodding to John indicating that they should start moving again.

John nodded back, though he understood why Megan wanted to stop. He had to confess to feeling tired himself, drained in more ways than one. It wasn't just his strength that was being drained by physical exhaustion, but it felt like his spirit was being drained as well. The sight of nothing but death and destruction all around seemed to be draining the will to live from his soul, replacing it guilt, horror, pain and anger. Guilt for letting this happen to Washington DC and its people – even though intellectually he knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent this holocaust. Horror and pain for all those who had perished her today – their existence snuffed out in a wall of fire. Anger at whoever it whichever creatures had done this, it burned like molten lava in his veins before congealing into a diamond hard, arctic coldness deep inside him that was terrifying. He knew that he would have to be careful lest the anger overwhelm him as it would kill all that was John Sheppard as surely as a bullet could.

Mentally shaking himself John forced his legs to begin moving, focusing on his duty to get Melissa, Megan and Leon to safety – he was a soldier it was his job and his duty to see civilians such as them safe. Seeing the Sumner's get to safety would go someway towards diminishing the guilt and bitter feelings of failure for letting this happen.

Not trusting himself to speak John resumed walking in the direction that would _hopefully_ lead to the freeway and a possible way out of this ruin. Unable to speak themselves Melissa, Megan and Leon followed him.

* * *

**Top of Cheyenne Mountain**

**A Few Moments Later**

Major Samantha Carter looked up at the sky in shock and awe as the formerly ominous dark grey clouds glowed and shimmering with golden light. The lightshow was unlike anything she had ever seen before, which was saying something given all that she had seen in this and other galaxies over the last several years. The scientist in her couldn't help but wonder what was going on, what the golden light was doing as she was sure that the Asgard were causing it to happen. Especially given what Thor had said to her about his people having the ability to dampen down the worst of the storms caused by the Goa'uld attack. The rest of her however was just gripped by child-like awe at the beauty of the aura and the way it illuminated the world with a colour like liquid gold.

"What's going on," Dr Lee asked looking up at the shimmering aura.

"I don't know, Bill," Sam replied. "Though you can bet whatever it is the Asgard are behind it. They maybe doing something to stabilise the atmospheric disruption caused by the Goa'uld weapons fire. Thor did tell me, Daniel and Teal'c that his people were going to do something to dampen down the disruption."

Bill nodded and was about to reply when the light changed. Sam looked up again just in time to see a section of the aura-filled clouds part, allowing a brilliant shaft of sunlight to streak down out of the sky and illuminate the surface. As she watched the shaft widened, spreading across the sky as the clouds dissolved away to nothing revealing a sky that somehow seemed clearer than she had ever seen it in her life. The warm rays of the star that had nurtured the solar system for billions of years shone down from the clear sky, banishing the damp cold that had been hanging in the air.

"Wow," Bill said softly gazing up in awe at the azure blue sky. Intellectually he'd known that the Asgard were one of the most technologically advanced races in the known universe, but it was one thing to hear about some of what they could do. It was quite another to see something like this as his instincts were telling him that the whole world was now like this – that the skies were clear once again. To be able to manipulate the whole atmosphere of a world like Earth so quickly was incredible to say the least.

"I'd say," Sam agreed equally amazed by what the Asgard had done. She'd seen many examples of the Asgards power over the years from when they had made Heru'ur's army and pyramids on Cimmeria 'go away' to their ability to manipulate time over a large chunk of a star system, but this was impressive even for the Asgard. She would love to know how they did it, but as with most Asgard technology she suspected that the exact mechanics of how it worked would be beyond her ability to understand. She had enough fun understanding how exactly Asgard hyperdrives worked to achieve the speed they did and she was one of the pioneers in wormhole physics and subspace theory. She was studying their drives as an Asgard hyperdrive and a number of other Asgard technologies were going to be included in their next starship the _Daedalus_ which was being designed from the ground up with Asgard technology in mind. Unlike _Prometheus_ which had been designed more to use reverse engineered or captured Goa'uld technology than the far more powerful technologies of the Asgard. While it was true that the Asgard had upgraded systems on the _Prometheus_ especially the shields and propulsion systems – as well as installing a single directed energy weapon – they didn't work at anywhere near their full potential. A problem she and others were hoping to address with the _Daedalus_ and any sisters that followed her.

It was at that moment that she heard a faint crackling humming sound from the subspace antenna. Her attention captured she turned back to the transmitter in time to see the lights in the open panels at the base flicker fitfully then one by one come on a solid green as power began to flow into its circuits once again. _Hailey I could kiss you_, Sam thought knowing her one time protégé – though the relationship had never been formally acknowledged by either of them – had pulled the metaphorical rabbit out of the equally metaphorical hat and restored the supply of power to Stargate Command.

Her radio crackled to life. "Major Carter this is Stargate Command respond please," Sergeant Walter Harriman said. "Major Carter if you can hear me please respond."

"I hear you, Walter," Sam answered. "What's your status?"

"Lieutenant Hailey has been able to restore sixty percent power to the base," Walter answered. "Doctor Weir is asking about your status?"

"We're fine up here, Walter," Sam informed the technician. "The subspace transceiver seems to be have gotten power back as well can you run the test program again?"

"Yes ma'am doing it now. Stand by."

Sam mentally held her breath and crossed her fingers hoping that the results of the test program came back okay. In her experience subspace communications arrays could be very fickle things, and could be upset by the smallest of things. Being such complex pieces of technology a subspace comm array were especially vulnerable to things like rogue power surges damaging the control crystals inside. She hoped that wasn't the case this time, they'd already had enough trouble getting the array to this point thank you very much. If it played up she didn't know what she would do, after all she hadn't slept in forty-eight hours in SG-1's desperate and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stop Anubis' attack on Earth. The moments of waiting for Walter's next words seemed to stretch into eternity, every single second seeming to take an hour or two to pass. _Please work, please work,_ Sam thought at the array.

Finally Walter broke the anxious silence. "Test program confirms that the subspace antenna is operational at twenty percent capacity," he reported drawing sighs of relief from Sam, Doctor Lee and Sergeant Siler. Twenty percent power to the array was better than nothing and while it meant they wouldn't be sending any long range interstellar messages for awhile but it would be more than sufficient to make contact with _Prometheus_ and the armada of Asgard warships in orbit. _Though if the Asgard have cleared the atmosphere of the electrical interference and all the gunk blasted into it by the Goa'uld bombardment then the smaller subspace transmitters the Tok'ra showed us how to make should be more the sufficient for that,_ Sam thought.

"That's good to hear, Walter," Sam said into the still open radio link. From the other end she heard a female voice speaking – a voice that she believed to be Doctor Weir's. But she couldn't be sure as the sounds was to faint.

After a moment she didn't have to wonder. "Major Doctor Weir is asking if you, Doctor Lee and Sergeant Siler can come back down here," Walter said. "She's asking that you assist Lieutenant Hailey with the repairs to the bases power grid."

Sam resisted the impulse to sigh in annoyance. It was not what she wanted to hear, given all she and the rest of SG-1 had been through in the last few days she would rather curl up in a room on base and sleep for a week. Still she supposed Weir was getting her priorities right with regards to the base, they needed full power for some of their more advanced alien-inspired systems to work properly. Without them the SGC would be unacceptably vulnerable to another attack, especially if the Goa'uld decided to try an invasion through the gate. _Though the Goa'uld would be foolish to attack us now,_ she thought knowing how easy it would be for the Asgard to make any invading force 'go away' even from orbit and through the millions of tons of solid rock and earth that made up Cheyenne Mountain. Still Sam knew they needed to get those systems back working as Thor's ships would not be able to stay here indefinitely.

"We'll be right down, Walter," she answered at last, trading looks of resignation with Lee and Siler. All three of them knew that there was not going to be any rest for them for awhile yet – not that any of them at the SGC would be able to sleep comfortably given what had happened to Earth. What they had all failed to prevent this time.

"Yes ma'am," Walter answered. Sam signed off and sighed before going to pick up the toolkit she'd brought up with her.

"Well no rest for the wicked I suppose," Lee said picking up his own toolkit, "or the righteous for that matter."

"None at all, Bill," Sam replied, "none at all."

* * *

**Stargate Command**

**That Same Time**

Doctor Elizabeth Weir sighed softly to herself as Walter finished communicating with Major Carter and the team on the surface. She hated the fact that she was having to push people like Samantha so far, people who'd already worked hard in a desperate attempt to prevent the Goa'uld attack, but she had no real choice. She had to keep everyone busy until they got some news from the president or from FEMA on any survivors from the destroyed cities. Sitting here with nothing to do was only going to push people's anxiety levels even higher than they already were.

And that included herself as like everyone else she had friends and loved ones that she was desperately worried about. People like Simon who made his living as a doctor in New York a city she knew had been hit hard by the rain of plasma from space. With that fear came anger, anger at the Goa'uld, anger at her own country and the previous two presidential administrations that had kept the existence of the Stargate from the rest of the world, all the while risking the lives of all six billion people on this planet. _And all for what,_ she wondered, _the Goa'uld are a threat to all of humanity we should have been told. Instead we had the Air Force carrying this countries history of manifest destiny out into the rest of the galaxy without even having the decency to ask the rest of the world first._

Elizabeth supposed that would change now. There was no way that the US Air Force or President Hayes would be able to cover up what had happened and why. No one would believe them if they came up with yet another convenient cover story of something like an asteroid shower. She just wished it hadn't taken tens possibly hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide before they were put in a position of having no choice but to come clean about the existence of the Stargate and what had really been going on behind the backs of not just the American people but the whole planet for the last several years.

"Doctor Weir," an airman abruptly said from besides her making her nearly jump out of her skin, she had gotten so caught up in her own thoughts.

"Yes airman what is it?" Elizabeth asked turning to look at the painfully young officer.

"General Hammond is on the line from the emergency command centre for you ma'am," the airman answered.

"Thank you," Elizabeth said before heading up the spiral staircase to the briefing room and her office on the level above. Slipping inside she moved to her chair and sat down before picking up a device that looked somewhat like an exotic PDA or one of the newer model mobile phones with touch screens as opposed to buttons. But in reality the device was neither though it was a communication device – just one that operated on principles and using technologies that no telecoms engineer would recognise.

As calmly as she could she pressed a button on the side. "General Hammond," she said.

"Doctor Weir," George Hammond's voice answered immediately. "How's everything at Stargate Command?"

"Its been better, we're working on repairs to the power grid at the moment," Elizabeth answered. "The Goa'uld caused some damage when they destroyed the original subspace transmitter, it only became apparent when we powered up the replacement transmitter."

"I see. Is everybody alright," Hammond asked his voice thick with concern. Elizabeth could understand why as George Hammond had commanded all the people in this base for the better part of eight years, ever since General West retired.

"Everyone's fine. Lieutenant Hailey is leading a team at the moment working on getting full power back. Major Carter, Sergeant Siler and Doctor Lee are on their way back down from the surface to help. As for the rest of the base I've got as many able bodied people as we can spare heading out to help search Colorado Springs for survivors."

"I understand. Is your subspace transmitter working now?"

"Its only working at twenty percent power at the moment but yes it is working. Why do you ask?"

"I have orders from the president that you need to relay to the _Prometheus_. Your transmitter is the only one powerful enough to reach them at the moment. Even with the atmospheric interference diminishing the ones were using at the moment can't reach _Prometheus_."

"Okay," Elizabeth replied getting up and taking the subspace communicator with her. "Just give me a minute to get Walter to tie this signal into the main array then the orders can be transmitted to _Prometheus_. What kind of orders are they by the way?"

For a moment Hammond didn't answer her and Elizabeth scowled guessing she was probably going to be stonewalled. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been stonewalled by military personnel she'd encountered it more than enough times in her capacity as an ambassador and international trouble shooter for the United Nations. Finally though Hammond spoke up:-

"We're sending _Prometheus _to the Alpha Site," Hammond said. "There are some stockpiled communications satellites there that we can use to get some form of global communications back."

"I see," Elizabeth replied as still holding the communicator she left her office and went to the stairs down to the control room. "We'll have you tied into the array in a couple of minutes."

"Understood standing by…"

* * *

**Ruins of Washington DC**

**A Few Moments Later**

Colonel Marshall Sumner found himself holding back tears by the sheer force of his will as he sat in the passenger seat of a military truck as it and a convoy of other vehicles made there way deeper and deeper into the shattered ruins of Washington DC. To see the city he had been born in, grown up in and lived in reduced to this shattered half burned out ruin was devastating. And what made it all the worse for him personally was knowing that somewhere in this ruin were his wife and his children.

Fingering his wedding ring he tried not to think about the possibility that Melissa, Leon and Megan hadn't survived, or that his biggest fear would be to go into the ruins of their home and find them dead in the rubble. But it was hard not to. He kept telling himself that they were still alive and that he would find them, that he would hold them all in his arms again and never let them go, but it was hard to keep that optimism up. Especially in the sight of such complete and total devastation and in light of the fact that search teams had so far found no survivors in the ruins beyond the outskirts of the city which had been spared the worst of the Goa'uld bombardment. Though the suburbs had been hit as well it was mostly by plasma charges dropped by a squadron of Alkesh that had broken through a defensive gauntlet of F-16 fighter jets long enough to carry out a bombing run before the enraged, pursuing flyboys kicked their asses back to hell where they belonged.

"Sir are you alright," Sergeant Bates asked from where he sat in the driver's seat. He'd been getting increasingly worried about his CO as they drove deeper and deeper into the ruins of Washington. It was increasingly obvious that Colonel Sumner was distracted and a glance at his face showed that he was afraid, more afraid than Bates had ever seen him. Which was saying quite a bit as they had been through a lot together both here on Earth and out in space against the Goa'uld and he could never recall seeing such a look of fear on his CO's face before.

"Yes, no," Sumner admitted unable to take his eyes off the scene of devastation, he didn't care that Bates would probably hear the fear in his voice. "I keep thinking about my wife and my kids. They're here somewhere in this holocaust."

For a moment Bates was speechless then he mentally kicked himself for forgetting that Melissa, Leon and Megan lived here in Washington DC. Though his CO rarely spoke of his family Bates knew that he cared a great deal for them, especially his son and daughter. They were the apples of their father's eyes in the rare instances when his CO had spoken about his children the typical hard assed marine mask that Sumner wore most days had fallen away allowing anyone to see the proud, loving father underneath.

"I'm sure there alive sir," he said at last, inwardly hoping that they were. He didn't know what his CO and his friend – as much as a senior officer could be a friend – would do if his wife and children were dead. The only thing he knew for sure was that it would tear him apart physically and emotionally. "Maybe they weren't here when the attack happened?"

"No they'd have been here," Sumner answered. "My parents are dead and Melissa's parents live in Sacramento we weren't going to go see them for another month. They'd have been here."

Bates frowned and was about to open his mouth to give his CO some more encouragement, something to keep his hopes that his family was still alive up when an obstruction appeared on the freeway up ahead forcing him to slam the breaks on hard. The trucks wheels screeched and smoked as the breaks locked but still moved forward, aquaplaning on the wet surface of the freeway for a few heart stopping seconds before coming to a halt with a jolt that knocked Bates against the steering wheel and Sumner against the dashboard. From all around there came screeches from the other vehicles of the convoy as they performed their own emergency stops to the best of their abilities in the wet.

"Bates are you alright," Sumner asked straightening up in his seat and shaking his head slightly as he struggled to get his wits back.

"Yes sir," Bates replied breathlessly and wincing as he sat back upright. His chest was aching from the hard contact with the steering wheel though his flack jacket had absorbed the worst of the impact, no doubt saving him from serious injury. Though it had ripped the breath from his lungs and he knew he would have a nasty bruise on his chest later.

"Are you sure," Sumner asked in concern having seen Bates wince.

"Yes sir I'm sure," Bates replied getting his breath completely back.

"Alright if you're sure," Sumner answered giving the sergeant a quick not convinced glance and making a mental note to order him to have a medic check him over later, before turning his attention to what was beyond the windscreen.

To see three black government cars, including one limo, and several police motorcycles sprawled across all the lanes of the freeway, clearly having been tossed about like toys by the shockwave from an exploding plasma bolt. Frowning in concern, and also wondering who was or had been in the vehicles, Sumner retrieved his P90 semi-automatic rifle from a clip in the door and got out the truck. Bates did the same on the opposite side and cautiously the two marines advanced towards the wreckage of the motorcade. Following up behind them came another pair of marines and several army medics and Red Cross personnel ready to attend to any survivors.

It took only a few moments for Bates and Sumner to reach the motorcade, the first thing they saw were the burnt, twisted bodies of the police outriders. Sumner winced when he saw the blackened bodies of the police officers, officers who would have never had a chance against the shockwave and fireball triggered by the explosion of a Goa'uld plasma cannon bolt. He knew they would have died within seconds of the blast enveloping them, their lives snuffed out in golden fire. Silently saying a prayer for the dead men Sumner moved onto the next vehicle in the motorcade a black sedan whose windows were smashed and armoured body crumpled and torn like tin-foil. Inside were the bodies of four Secret Service agents, like the police outriders there bodies were twisted and scorched though they weren't badly burned – obviously the cars upholstery – as designed – hadn't been ignited by the fireball. One agents lifeless eyes were frozen looking right at Sumner a final look of pain and terror etched on the mans face. Reaching in Sumner gently, reverently closed the dead mans eyes.

"Sir," Bates voice suddenly said from up ahead. Sumner turned his attention to his subordinate to see Bates was squatted down next to an open door on the limo. Hurrying over Sumner rounded the door to Bates side.

And found himself face to face with Vice President Robert Kinsey.

Kinsey was in a bad way. His eyes were closed, his skin deathly pale and caked in sweat. The only colour on him aside from his smart black suit was blood seeping down the side of his face from a very nasty gash torn right across his forehead. Amazingly Kinsey still seemed to be breathing, though his breaths were laboured and had an ominous rattle to them, a rattle that pointed to serious internal injuries. Bates and Sumner exchanged an ominous glance; they'd both seen people as badly wounded as the vice president before on the battlefield and knew that the chances of recovery from such serious injuries were slim indeed.

"Medic," Sumner called out bringing two army medics and a Red Cross doctor running to their side. "It's the vice president, he's alive but he's not in a good way."

"I can see that, colonel," the Red Cross doctor answered. "If you and the sergeant will kindly get out of the way we'll have a look at him and see what we can do. In the meantime I suggest you check the rest of the motorcade, if there is one survivor its possible that there could be more."

Sumner nodded and wordless got out of the doctors way, Bates did the same. For a moment they both watched as the doctor and medics descended on Kinsey to access his condition and see what they could do to help him, before turning away. Sumner made a hand gesture and together with two more marines they began moving to check the motorcade for anymore survivors.

It took all of three minutes for Sumner, Bates and the other two marines to confirm there were no more survivors in the vice presidents motorcade. All the others were either Secret Service agents or police officers and all had perished, only the retrofitted trinium-titanium alloy reinforcement cage around the passenger section of the vice presidents limo having saved Kinsey from dying with his security escort. _Maybe it would have been a good thing if Kinsey had died with them,_ Sumner thought as he and Bates rejoined the medical party. Like many other SGC veterans he didn't like Kinsey that much, the man was a grade A asshole after all – as Jack O'Neill would have said – but still he wouldn't have wished injuries like the ones Kinsey had sustained on him.

"How is he doc," he asked.

"Not good at all, colonel," the doctor replied looking up and taking the earplugs of a stethoscope out of his ears. "From what I can hear there is fluid in both lungs. My best guess is both lungs have been punctured, probably by his ribs. He's literally drowning in his own body fluids – there is little we can do for him here. Even if we got him to a hospital his chances of survival would be slim to none. We'll do the best we can for him but I'm not hopeful."

Sumner nodded and was about to reply when the sound of rubble moving caught his attention. Swinging round and bringing his P90 up he saw that some rubble blocking the on ramp that let up to the freeway from the streets below was moving. From below came a small yelp as something landed on somebody or someone otherwise hurt themselves.

"Whose there," he called starting to walk over keeping his weapon ready. For a second there was silence then he heard a voice that he had been half convinced he wouldn't ever hear again, a voice that flooded his heart with joy and relief.

"Marshall."

* * *

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Major John Sheppard scowled as along with the Sumner's he arrived at the bottom on the on ramp for the freeway that was the major transport artery for this part of Washington DC only to find that it was not in a good way. The concrete and asphalt surface was cracked and torn, turning what had once been a smooth surface into a landscape of fault lines that would be treacherous to climb. And that wasn't all it was also covered in debris that got ranged from small bits of concrete and brick up to a number of solid steel girders. All of the debris was from the wrecked apartment building that had stood next to the freeway but which was now a pile of still softly smouldering rubble. They'd passed a number of such mounds as though the now stopped rain had extinguished all but a few fires – mostly those feeding on ruptured gas lines – a lot of debris was still hot and could well be still on fire deep inside where the rain hadn't been able to penetrate.

"Oh boy," he said purposely modulating his language mindful of the fact that Megan and Leon were close by and that like all kids they had big ears. Somehow he doubted that Melissa would be happy if he said something like the F word in earshot of her children – no matter how tempting it was. "That's going to be difficult to traverse."

"Indeed," Melissa agreed scowling at the road leading upwards to the freeway. Unfortunately this was the only way up onto the freeway; the slip road coming the opposite direction was seventy metres behind them on the other side of a solid concrete wall that was still annoyingly intact. They would have to go miles out of their way to get around to it and there was no guarantee that it would be in any better shape than this one.

"Do we have to climb up there, mom," Leon asked frowning up at his mother before looking at the ramp.

"I'm afraid so, Leon," Sheppard replied for Melissa. "It's the only way up for a few miles, and I think I heard some vehicles up there a few moments ago. If I'm right then it could be search parties are coming into the city. Going up onto the freeway is our best chance of getting their attention."

"Major Sheppard is right kids," Melissa added. "We need to go up there and we need to go up there now. Can you do that for me?" Leon and Megan reluctantly nodded. "Good."

"I'll go up first," Sheppard said. "See if I can find a safe path to the top."

Melissa nodded in agreement; John turned and offered her and the kids a small smile before turning and beginning to walk up the ramp. It was relatively easy at first, but as the gradient got ever so slightly steeper he found it harder going, the unstable rubble was slick with water from the earlier rain, water that had turned the more dusty elements into a slippery mud. That combined with the broken road surface made the ascent difficult to say the least. Still he made steady progress towards the top.

He was about two thirds of the way up when his foot caught on a girder and he was sent flat on his face. Around him stone and concrete moved and one chunk hit him hard on the shoulder, drawing a startled yelp of pain from his lips though he escaped any more serious injury than a nasty bruise thanks to the padding of the coat he was wearing at his flight suit. For a few agonising seconds he thought that more of the debris was going to move and he would be caught in a landslide of rubble, but thankfully no more debris moved.

But it seemed that the movement had attracted attention.

"Whose there," a professional sounding male voice asked from above. Hearing the voice Melissa and her children froze and their eyes widened. _It can't be can it,_ Melissa thought looking up.

"Marshall," she called. "Marshall is that you?"

* * *

For a few seconds after hearing his wife's voice Marshall Sumner froze, a cascade of different emotions suddenly surging through him, chief amongst them hope and joy. His P90 fell from suddenly nerveless fingers to clatter against the ground, then eyes burning with unshed tears of happiness he found himself running forward to the edge of the road and looking down.

And there a few feet below him were Melissa, Leon and Megan looking tired and wet but otherwise none the worse for ware. Picking himself up halfway up the ramp where he had obviously fallen was another man only a few years younger than him with an unruly mop of jet black hair that was currently slicked close to his head from having gotten wet. Beneath a coat that Sumner recognised as one of his – presumably lent to the stranger by Melissa as she was the kind of person to do such things – the man wore an air force flight suit. Clearly he was one of the pilots who'd been shot down in the fierce air battle that had erupted over this city during the Goa'uld assault.

"Yeah it's me," he said. "Are you and the kids alright?"

"For the most part," Melissa replied smiling warmly up at her husband and feeling a weight leave her shoulders. "What about you are you…"

"I am now," Sumner answered allowing the relief he felt that his family were alive and apparently, miraculously unhurt show in his voice and on his face. "Can you get up here?"

"Major Sheppard was trying to find a safe path up for us," Melissa said back nodding at the air force officer who seemed to be listening quietly with a faint smile on his face. "But the debris on the on ramp is going to make it difficult to get up that way."

"To be honest sir I wouldn't recommend coming up or down this way," Sheppard added looking up at the marine colonel. "The roadway is in a very bad way, the debris is also quite unstable and slippery as hell."

Sumner scowled slightly wondering how he was going to get his family and Major Sheppard up here to the freeway if they couldn't use the ramp. Then he remembered some of the emergency equipment that the rescue convoy had, including ladders. "Stay there," he called down to his family. "Major Sheppard if you can safely do so come the rest of the way up the ramp, if not head back down. We'll get you all out of there in a few moments."

"Yes sir," Sheppard replied before glancing back up at the rest of the ramp and noting more than ever how treacherous it was, before looking back down at a very relieved looking Melissa and her children. Deciding he would be better off heading back down he slowly began picking his way over the debris back down to the street below.

For his part Marshall Sumner took a few steps back before gesturing to some of the waiting rescue workers. "My families down there along with an air force major," he said to them. "You'll need the ladders to get them up."

One of the workers nodded. "Okay colonel, leave it to us," he said. "We'll get them back to you safely."

Sumner nodded and watched as those rescue workers not helping the medics with the gravely wounded Kinsey exploded into a flurry of activity, heading back to some of the vehicles in the convoy – which was now scattered all over the carriageway thanks to the emergency stop and subsequent skids in the slippery conditions – to get out long ladders that could be hooked against the concrete sidewall lining the freeway and dropped over the side for those below to climb up.

Knowing he could do nothing to help them Sumner took a few more steps back and leaned against the side of one of the trucks where he would not be in the way. He closed his eyes and felt himself beginning to shake slightly as reaction to the knowledge that his wife and children were alive and well set in. Despite the devastation and death all around he hadn't lost them, through some miracle they'd survived and in just a few more minutes he would be able to hold them in his arms again. Weights slid off his shoulders and heart and he became aware of two things, one that a hand that felt like it belonged to Bates was clapping him on the shoulder, two that there were tears running down his cheeks, tears not of pain or of grief but of pure, unmitigated joy. Despite the presence of his fellow marines and the rescue party he didn't care about showing weakness. He'd been so terrified for so long that he didn't care who saw him crying.

He didn't know how long he was leaning there against the side of the truck. But it had to have been a good few minutes for the next thing he became aware of was the sound of small feet running towards him. He stood up straight again and opened his eyes to see Megan running towards him with Leon appearing at the top of the ladder.

"Daddy, daddy," Megan said at the top of her lungs as she ran towards her father. Squatting down Marshall Sumner caught his daughter as she ran into his arms and pulled her into a tight embrace. He didn't trust himself to speak, his throat was too choked up with emotion for any sound to emerge instead he just hugged his little girl as tight as he could without harming her. More running footsteps caught his attention and he looked up to see Leon running towards him as well, freeing one arm he caught Leon as his son arrived and pulled him into an embrace as well.

The combined weight of his children burying there heads in his chest, knocked him off balance and he landed on his rump but he didn't care. He just laughed slightly and held his children close with all the passion and joy of a man who had thought he would never see them again.

"Dad you're crying," Leon said after a moment looking up into his fathers face and seeing the silver streaks of tear trails running down his fathers cheeks.

"I know, son," Marshall replied. "It's because I'm just so happy to see you alive. There are times when it's okay to cry." Leon nodded in somewhat understanding before burying his head in his father's chest and letting his own tears flow.

For a moment Marshall stayed like that hugging two of the three individuals who meant more to him than anything else in the world. Then he looked up to see Melissa approaching a smile on her lips, though up close now he saw what he hadn't been able to see before. Melissa looked to be tired and in a small amount of pain – he'd always been able to tell such things with her as she always had been able to with him. For all that they came from radically different family backgrounds, her parents successful structural engineers and he from a family that had been military for generations, they were the rarest of partners, the rarest of lovers they were soul mates.

Awkwardly he stood up, letting go of Megan and Leon much to his children's annoyance, and walked the few paces up to his wife. He wasn't quite sure who made the next move but the next thing he knew they were embracing strongly.

"Thank god you're alright," Marshall said softly into his wife's ear while inhaling the lingering smell of her shampoo, a smell that mixed with others that were not so pleasant like the smells of fire and death. At the moment that mattered not, it was the best smell he'd ever smelt in his opinion. "I was so afraid that I'd lost you."

"You almost did," Melissa answered. "If Major Sheppard hadn't come along when he did, we'd have all perished. He saved us."

Sumner blinked slightly before pulling away and looking over at the air force major that was standing nearby – still wearing one of his coats – watching the emotional reunion with a small smile on his face. For a moment he did nothing then Marshall held out his hand and cautiously the other man took it.

"Thank you," Marshall said meaning every word of what he was saying with every fibre of his being. "For saving my family and bringing them back to me." Sheppard smiled back and shook his hand.

"Your welcome," he replied. "Sir do you mind me asking if you know anything about the fate of the rest of my squadron? They were dog fighting with alien fighters and bombers over the city when I got shot down."

"I know a little about the squadrons that took part in the battle," Marshall admitted. "Which squadron was it?"

"Nine one seven squadron," Sheppard answered. Sumner frowned and wracked his brain for what little information he had been given on the air battle that had raged over their nations capital and those F-16's that had survived it – which were surprisingly large in number as while Death Gliders had huge advantages in speed, manoeuvrability and short range firepower the Jaffa were as a whole lousy combat pilots – at least by Earth standards, but then the various nations of the world had made combat in a three dimensional environment an art form in the hundred plus years since the Wright brothers took that historic first powered flight.

"Most made it back," he said at last and saw a look of relief pass across Sheppard's face at that bit of information. "Though I believe several pilots in total were lost with one presumed MIA after being seen to take a direct hit – which I assume is you, major."

"So what happens now," Sheppard asked a moment before someone cleared there throat behind Sumner bringing the Colonels attention to him.

"Yes doc," Sumner asked finding himself face to face with the doctor who'd been looking after the vice president. "Is it about the vice president?"

"I'm afraid so, colonel," the doctor replied. "I'm sorry to have to report that Vice President Kinsey's injuries were to severe, he died a few moments ago."

"I see, I can't say I'm surprised. I am no doctor but I know the signs of mortal injuries when I see them."

The doctor nodded. "We're bagging up the bodies of the vice president and the rest of the motorcade now," he said. "We'll start loading them on the trucks soon for transport out of the city, then we can move on. See if we can find anyone else alive."

"Good luck," Sheppard replied. "From what I've seen most of the city from here on in has been razed to the ground by whatever those energy bolts were. I doubt you'll find many more survivors."

"Maybe we won't major," the doctor answered. "But we have to look anyway," he continued before addressing Colonel Sumner again. "Colonel you don't have to stay with the convoy from here. You can accompany your family out of the city if you wish."

Sumner sighed and considered. While he was part of the security detachment assigned to the convoy he knew the doctor was well within his rights to offer him the chance to leave with his family. If he accepted the offer there would be no repercussions on him, but at the same time could he really leave the convoy in good conscience. If something happened to them and he wasn't there to protect them then he knew that it would haunt him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately the same was true of his wife and children – he'd only just gotten them back and didn't want to let them out of his sight for awhile, and it wouldn't be fair to drag them along through ruins of the city that had been their home. They were likely traumatised by what they had seen already, they didn't need to see anymore. The conflict tore at his mind and for one of the few times in his life Marshall Sumner found himself completely at a loss as to what to do now.

"Daddy come with us, please," Megan abruptly said from beside him pulling on the side of his pants.

"Yeah dad please get us out of here," Leon added backing up his sister. Both young Sumner's looked up at their father with eyes that had exactly the same expectant look in them. It was the same look that never failed to turn him from a hard assed, highly trained member of the United States Marine Corps into a walking, talking ball of mush. Leon and Megan could wrap him around their little fingers if they wanted to, and unfortunately for him they both knew he could never say no to them for very long – especially if they double teamed him. As usual the looks from his children worked and he buckled – much to the quiet amusement of the watching Sergeant Bates, who made a mental note not to have kids when they had that kind of power over you.

"Alright we'll go," Sumner said at last and watched as the faces of his son and daughter lit up at the thought of getting out of the city. Though quite where they would stay long term Sumner had no idea as the flat was almost certain to be wrecked beyond redemption. _I suppose we could stay at that cabin in the Appalachians that Melissa talked me into investing in last year,_ he thought. "We'll head to the airbase outside the city all the relief ops are being coordinated from there. Major Sheppard I assume you'll want to come with us and rejoin the rest of your squadron."

"Yes sir," Sheppard replied looking forward to seeing Mac again – assuming he had survived the air battle. He was tempted to ask Colonel Sumner if he had more details on exactly who had survived but decided against it as it was highly unlikely that the marine colonel would have that kind of information. And he got the impression that Sumner was one of those officers who didn't like being asked potentially stupid questions – especially as he'd already said he knew very few details of the battle.

"Very well," Sumner decided. "We'll leave as soon as all the bodies are loaded on one of the other trucks. We'll take another truck and travel in convoy."

"Do we have to wait dad," Leon moaned.

"Afraid so, Leon," Sumner replied turning his full attention to his son and found a disappointed pair of brown eyes looking back up at him. "But we won't have to wait long, I promise and do I break my promises?" Leon shook his head. "So can you be a good boy and wait." A nod was the response. "Good boy," Sumner finished ruffling his son's damp hair which glistened in the bright sunshine that had so abruptly replaced the stormy darkness. An event that he was personally sure the Asgard was responsible for.

Putting the musings about the Asgard out of his mind Sumner turned his attention away from his family – with more than a little bit of effort and instead moved to organise the splitting of the convoy with Sergeant Bates. As he did so he found himself thinking about where he and his family were going to stay again. Though they did have that cabin in the Appalachian Mountains a few hours drive outside Washington it would not be the ideal place for them. Especially what with winter coming and with it the prospect of heavy snows, especially in the mountains. _We'll think of somewhere to stay,_ he thought, _and we're luckier than most, thanks to Major Sheppard we're still together as a family._

And that was all that really mattered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**USS Prometheus**

**Sometime Later**

Colonel Lionel Pendergast sat in thoughtful silence in his command chair on the cramped, dark bridge of Earth's first starship. From his position he could see out through the bridges small viewports to glimpse the swirling blue tunnel effect of hyperspace travel swirling past the ship as they sped through subspace towards the Alpha Site at speeds hundreds of times greater than light. This was only his third flight through hyperspace as the commanding officer of the _Prometheus_; he recalled that the first time he had seen hyperspace streaming past outside and known that they were travelling at speeds that should be impossible according to Einstein's theory of relativity he had been awed. Travelling in hyperspace had an odd sort of hypnotic beauty to it, especially with how it seemed to pick up your cares and carry them away in its shimmering fields of energy.

At least that was normally the case. Right now he couldn't stop thinking about Earth and what had happened, what Anubis had done to them. Despite the intervention of Thor and the Asgard the Goa'uld attack had inflicted horrendous damage upon his homeworld and killed God alone knew how many people across the entire globe in the thirty-one destroyed or severely damaged cities. A loss of life that was only going to get higher given that shortly before the orders to go to the Alpha Site and retrieve the satellites had come there sensors had monitored a massive quake on the San Andreas fault with an area that had been locked up for over a hundred years rupturing in a catastrophic release of energy. The quake had probably levelled what was left of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego and they had observed tsunami's rippling out across the ocean from the site of four massive earthquake triggered landslides where whole cliffs had fallen to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. _Could we have prevented the attack,_ he thought unable to stop himself _is there someway we could have prevented millions of deaths at the hands of Anubis?_

The only answer he could come up with when he thought about it was no. There was nothing they could have done to prevent the attack on Earth especially by a Goa'uld fleet the size of the one Anubis had brought to Earth. A fleet that had been fifteen times the size of the fleet Apophis had brought to attack Earth six years ago and had included one of the gigantic command motherships on top of basic Ancient-tech augmented Ha'tak's. By the standards of any System Lord the armada Anubis had brought to Earth was powerful and with the technology Anubis had at his disposal had been to much for them to deal with even with all the technological advances they had made over the last several years. If the Asgard hadn't shown up when they did and if SG-1 hadn't pulled yet another rabbit out of their hats then Lionel knew that Anubis would have kept up his bombardment until Earth's oceans vaporised and the very ground melted into sluggish lava.

Even knowing that the Earth was safe for now and that Anubis was almost certain to be dead – unless he could somehow survive his ship being literally torn asunder by the powerful Ancient weapons unleashed by SG-1 – didn't make his thoughts any easier. Didn't stop him feeling a profound guilt at being unable to prevent the attack and the millions of lives it had claimed. _Maybe it would have been better if we'd buried the Stargate after that first mission to Abydos,_ he thought, _true we would have been blissfully ignorant of the existence of the Goa'uld but millions of lives wouldn't have been lost because we thought we had the obligation to bring down the System Lords._

If he was brutally honest with himself Lionel had to admit that they had been nowhere near ready to go out into the galaxy. And that it had been the height of arrogance and hubris for the US Air Force to assume they had the right to endanger the whole of Earth and the very existence of the Tau'ri as a people without even having the decency to ask the rest of the planet first. They had assumed they could handle it and for seven years they seemed to have been able to – though unlike some in the program he had to admit that Stargate Command had only narrowly escaped disaster and global devastation at the hands of the Goa'uld or some other advanced alien group they'd pissed off by the skin of their teeth on numerous occasions, something that should have warned them that they were in way, way over their heads. _Whether we were right or not doesn't matter now though,_ he thought, _we can't change the decisions made in the past, no matter how much some of us might want to given what has happened. As it is I don't see how we'll be able to cover what's been going on up anymore – no one would believe one of the usual cover stories now._

The sudden bleeping of the helm console to his right jolted Lionel Pendergast out of his thoughts and brought his attention right back to the here and now. He was experienced enough now to know that sound meant that they were coming up on the Alpha Site and would soon drop out of hyperspace.

Half a second later Major Erin Gant spoke up. "Sir we're approaching the Alpha Site," she confirmed. "We'll reach our emergence coordinates in one minute thirty two seconds."

"Very good," Lionel replied. "Sound battle stations." After what had happened to Earth he wasn't about to take any chances. Though the new Alpha Site was supposedly secure he wouldn't have put it past Anubis to dispatch a secondary force of Ha'tak's to destroy the newly created base – if he'd found out where it was, again. The _Prometheus_ could well emerge from hyperspace and find itself engaged in battle with Goa'uld forces loyal to the fallen System Lord who hadn't yet learned of their 'gods' demise. He hoped that wouldn't happen as they were not really in any shape for a protracted confrontation but he knew to be prepared. After all as the old saying went hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

"Yes sir," newly promoted Major Marks replied from the weapons console, before pressing a control on the panel.

Immediately an alarm began to sound throughout the ship, sending the crew into well rehearsed actions. Crew members sprinted to their battle stations while the engineering crew began rerouting non-essential power to the shield generators ready to raise the Asgard designed shields the moment they emerged from hyperspace. Gunnery crews prepped the ships twenty-four railgun positions for possible action while the missile crews loaded there few remaining Mark VI naquada enhanced nuclear missiles into their tubes. Finally the crews manning the main Asgard weapon picked up their pace replacing the burned out conduits and capacitors connecting the powerful particle weapon to the ships power grid – knowing if they did find themselves in battle with the forces of Anubis the main weapon would be needed as it was the only weapon they had that was capable of penetrating the powerful hybrid shields used by Anubis' vessels.

"All departments report ready for battle, sir," Marks reported. "All railgun positions are manned and operational, all operable missile tubes have been loaded and the main cannon crew are working overtime to get the weapon back online."

"Understood," Lionel replied a moment before Major Gant spoke up.

"Sir hyperspace emergence in ten seconds," she said. "Nine… eight," Lionel braced himself in the command chair for the sudden sharp deceleration to sublight velocity as the inertial dampeners weren't perfect after all. Around the bridge the rest of the crew did the same as Major Gant continued her countdown. "Three… two… one," she said and stabbed one of her controls.

Immediately a jolt – visible as a ripple in the air – ran through the whole of the _Prometheus_, pushing crew back in their seats. Through the bridge viewports the shimmering tunnel of hyperspace flared brilliant white before dissolving into the star studded blackness of normal space. For a few seconds the stars remained blurred as one of the quirks of all known forms of hyperspace technology was that a ship exiting hyperspace did so at close on light speed. The blur faded and vanished as the small cruisers forward thrusters fired rapidly slowing the ship down to normal cruising speed.

"Scan the system," Lionel ordered. "Report any sign of enemy activity."

"Yes sir," Marks reported.

For a few moments tense silence reigned on the bridge of the _Prometheus_ as the powerful sensor arrays provided by the Asgard during the ships last refit reached out. Invisible beams of energy swept the system, searching for any sign of Goa'uld activity anywhere in the system.

"No enemy contacts detected sir," Marks reported after a moment as the sensors came back showing the system was clean.

Lionel relaxed slightly in his command chair. "Very good," he replied. "Stand down from battle stations, Major Gant take us into planetary orbit."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Silent in the vacuum of space the two massive rear sublight thrusters came to life, sending out a strong blast of ionised xenon gas contained and accelerated to a sizeable percentage of light speed within a powerful gravitic field. With an effortless grace that belied her blocky, angular form the _Prometheus_ began to move forward, swinging into orbit of the planet on which the SGC had been constructing a new Alpha Site to replace the one destroyed by Anubis's forces a few months previously.

In mere moments the small cruiser established a powered geostationary orbit forty thousand kilometres above the outpost. Sensor beams from the outpost began to play across the ship as groundside crews detected the contact entering orbit. Automatically the _Prometheus's _IFF transponder activated alerting the people on the ground that the contact was a friendly contact that meant them no harm.

* * *

**Prometheus Bridge**

"Sir we're being hailed by the outpost," Captain Womack reported from communications. "It's Colonel Richardson for you sir."

"Put him through," Lionel ordered.

"Yes sir."

One of the small screens above the bridge viewports came on showing the face of the middle aged colonel who was in command of the new base. Richardson's face was grim and from the pain and anger in the other mans grey-blue eyes Lionel guessed he already knew about the Goa'uld attack on Earth. _No doubt the SGC dialled in,_ he thought, _Weir has probably already initiated protocol eighteen._ Protocol eighteen was the coded order to instruct the Alpha Site staff to prepare the emergency satellites for transport and to begin transporting as many people and medical supplies back through the Stargate to Earth as could be spared.

"Colonel Pendergast its good to see you," Richardson said. "I have to admit to having been somewhat concerned that you weren't going to get here."

"We took a bit of a battering in the battle," Lionel admitted remembering how heavy volleys of plasma fire had struck them on several occasions during the massive battle that had erupted in orbit, though the bulk of the Jaffa's attention had been occupied by the much larger threat of the Asgard warships. Especially as in the year that had passed since the loss of an Asgard Beliskner-class battlecruiser over Adara II the Asgard had upgraded their own weapons – even on the older Beliskner-class battlecruisers – so they were effective against Goa'uld shields once again, even if they weren't capable of ignoring them the way they had before Anubis returned from the abyss. Something that Lionel was sure had come as a nasty surprise to Anubis – especially when all it took was two full volleys of charged particle bolts from a Beliskner's main cannon to blow one of his enhanced Ha'tak's to smithereens shields or no shields.

"But we're intact for the most part," he continued shaking off the thoughts of the battle over Earth.

Richardson nodded. "How bad is it back there," he asked. "Doctor Weir's message didn't tell us all that much. All we know is the Goa'uld fleet bombarded multiple cities."

"Bad," Lionel admitted. "Thirty-one cities have been destroyed or severely damaged. The bombardment blew a lot of gunk into the atmosphere and there were major storms from the passage of all that plasma. The Asgard we're using their technology to clear that up, when we left the storms were abating. There has also been an earthquake on the San Andreas triggered by the bombardment, a big one."

"How bad," Richardson asked.

"Nine point three," Lionel replied. "I don't know how much more damage its done. I do know it's caused a few landslides into the ocean that have triggered tsunamis."

"Jesus," Richardson said softly knowing that those tsunamis would sow yet more death and destruction all around the Pacific Basin over the next few hours. "We're sending as many medical supplies and people back through the Stargate as we can," he added. "But from what you tell me, colonel it's not going to make much difference."

"Every little helps, colonel," Lionel replied. "Have your teams been able to get the satellites ready for transport?"

Richardson nodded. "There ready," he said. "We've attached marker beacons so you can lock your transporters onto them. I'm sending the beacon frequencies up to you now on a sub-channel."

Lionel glanced over at Captain Womack who nodded indicating that the beacons were being received; he nodded in acknowledgement before turning back to the communications screen. "Beacon signals are transmitting strong," he told Richardson. "We'll start beaming the satellites into our cargo bays immediately."

"I hope there enough to do the job they were intended for," Richardson said.

"We'll soon know," Lionel answered.

"True. Well I better get back to supervising the transfer of as medical supplies as we can spare. Good luck on your journey back to Earth, and please ask that they keep us advised of what's happening back there – I've got quite a lot of anxious people down here."

Lionel gave a small smile. "Will do," he said. Richardson smiled back before breaking the communications link between them from his end.

"Sir the last of the satellites have been beamed aboard and our secure in our cargo bay," Marks reported.

"Excellent. Major Gant break orbit, set course back to Earth and engage the hyperdrive – best speed."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Silently the _Prometheus _broke orbit of the planet that housed the Alpha Site and headed out into open space. Sensors watching her progress from the ground detected a sudden sharp spike in power emissions from the Earth warship as her hyperdrive powered up and began generating a subspace field.

Focusing the field forward the hyperdrive began to apply tremendous pressure to the fabric of space-time causing it to begin to warp and distort. After barely half a second the quantum fabric of normal space-time parted and the swirling aquamarine vortex of a hyperspace window burst into existence. With a surge of acceleration the _Prometheus_ shot into the window like an arrow fired from a bow, vanishing from normal space in a flash of light and subspace energy. As soon as the ship disappeared the hyperspace window folded closed and vanished as if it had never been there as the structure of space-time returned to normal. Even as it happened _Prometheus_ was already long gone from the system – tearing across the galaxy at speeds hundreds of times that of the speed of light – bound for Earth with her precious cargo that would allow some global communication to be restored, communication that would be essential for the coordination of relief efforts in the destroyed or damaged cities.

And that could only be a good thing.

* * *

**Asgard Vessel Jack O'Neill**

**Earth Orbit, A Short Time Later**

The first thing Colonel Jack O'Neill felt as consciousness returned was dampness and warmth – it suffused his body, bringing with it a profound sense of peace and comfort. Slowly Jack opened his eyes to find that he was in some kind of tank, with some kind of complex alien breathing apparatus over his nose and mouth. Through the thick translucent, green fluid that seemed to fill the tank he could faintly see a little grey figure moving outside the tank. _Who am I, where am I, what the hell is going on here,_ he thought his mind feeling like it had been stuffed with cotton wool.

Abruptly the thick liquid around him disappeared, being evacuated from the tank he was in through slits in the floor. The front of the tank opened and Jack found himself falling forwards, he tried to stop himself but he wasn't quick enough and he hit the floor hard. Immediately he started shivering as the air around him while warm felt cold compared to the warmth of the fluid he had been in a few seconds earlier.

Slowly the fog began to lift from his thoughts and he began to realise who he was and where he was. He was Colonel Jack O'Neill and he was on an Asgard ship, the techno-Norse style of the décor made that obvious, and presumably an Asgard ship that was orbiting Earth. _Huh how did I get here,_ he wondered as the last thing he remembered with any clarity was being in the control chair of the Ancient defence outpost in Antarctica, and under the direction of the knowledge in his head firing a mighty barrage of drone weapons at the attacking ships of Anubis, taking the pressure off Asgard forces engaged in battle against the powerful, half-ascended System Lord. After that everything had faded away as he succumbed to the intense pain of the monster headache the presence of so much information had caused and blacked out. Clearly he wasn't in the outpost anymore and he guessed that the Asgard must have transported him up to one of their ships.

As the fogginess in his head faded away completely Jack quickly realised three things. One that he was himself – Jack O'Neill again – that the knowledge of the Ancients wasn't there anymore, wasn't overriding everything that he was. Two that his body felt different, there was a strength in his limps that he had almost forgotten and none of the aches and pains he had had to get used to – including the first stabs of arthritis in his knees – as he'd gotten older weren't there anymore. Three that in addition to being cold he was completely and totally naked. Heat rushed to his cheeks as he reflexively began blushing in embarrassment. _What the hell have the Asgard done with my clothes,_ he thought before trying to sit up. Trying being the operative word as for some reason his arms didn't seem to be working properly.

"Please relax, Colonel O'Neill," an unfamiliar Asgard voice said as some invisible force picked him up and he was suddenly suspended in the air and turned so he was looking up at the ceiling. "You will become accustomed to your clone shortly."

"Clone," Jack exclaimed his voice muffled by the breathing apparatus as an Asgard whose skin was a subtly darker shade of grey than Thor's or Heimdall's appeared over him.

"Yes," the Asgard answered as he removed the breathing apparatus. Jack coughed and gagged for a moment then began breathing on his own. "Excellent the cloning process has worked perfectly," the Asgard said.

"You cloned me, why?" Jack asked. "Though I guess that explains why I'm naked."

"Your original body was very badly damaged by the extended exposure to the knowledge of the Ancients," the Asgard doctor informed him. "Many of your neural pathways were degrading and organs in the rest of your body were failing due to a number of genetic mutations that were taking place. It was beyond even our abilities to heal so Supreme Commander Thor had your mind transferred into this ships computer while we cloned you a new body, we have filtered out the harmful mutations however you may notice some differences in your abilities now."

"What kind of differences?"

"That we do not know," the Asgard replied before running what was obviously some sort of scanner over him. It looked like the control stones and communicator stones Jack had seen before, except this one shifted colours between blue, green and white in sequence. "Your physiology has been advanced by approximately five hundred to six hundred years on your species current evolutionary path, what effects this will have we do not know."

The scanner stone gave a soft trill. "Excellent neural pathway induction is correct," the Asgard said instantly loosing Jack in the technical jargon. _Damn where is Carter when you want her,_ he thought. "Colonel O'Neill would you mind attempting form a fist with both hands for me please?"

Jack nodded and did as he was told, forming both his hands into fists and feeling a new strength in his grip. "Good," the Asgard said. "Now move your feet a moment." Again Jack did as he was told flexing his feet and wiggling his toes. "Excellent all neuromuscular activity is now within Human normals. You should be able to stand now."

As the Asgard spoke he stepped out of view and Jack found himself rotating into a vertical position so he was looking at what was clearly the Asgard ships medical bay. It was nothing like he would have expected, he had expected something like the sickbays he saw on Federation ships whenever he watched one of the various Star Trek shows with bio beds and advanced medical instruments everywhere. Instead all he saw were a few Asgard consoles, several pod-like structures like the stasis pod a badly injured Thor had laid in when the Replicator-infested _Beliskner _had come to Earth orbit and a dozen tanks. Two of which were filled with the same thick green fluid that had been around him when he'd first woken up, inside those two tanks he saw the outlines of two Asgard bodies.

For a few moments he remained suspended in the air by some kind of invisible energy field then he was lowered till his feet touched the deck. Whatever energy field had been holding him suddenly released and he stumbled but recovered quickly.

"Colonel O'Neill there is what you would call a shower through that door," the Asgard doctor said pointing to a nearby set of doors. "You should go use it and remove the cloning fluid residue I will have some attire waiting for you when you return."

Jack nodded and carefully walked across to the indicated doors. Carefully because his body felt really strange, after all while he remembered the motions of how to walk and everything this particular body had never done it before. And then there was the strange feeling pervading him, a feeling of youthful strength and energy that had faded long ago. Though he had made a point to keep in shape – he was in excellent health for a man of fifty-two – he didn't have the strength he'd had as a young man. He'd never quite regained it after loosing a lot of weight in the long depression he'd suffered after Charlie shot himself with his own weapon.

Charlie.

As always when he thought about his son Jack felt his stomach twist in pain and felt his eyes burn with unshed tears. Even after all this time the pain of his son's needless death hadn't gone away, it never would. A part of his heart had died that day nine years ago with his son leaving a void in his soul that would never heal, a pain that would never truly go away. A pain that he especially felt whenever Charlie's birthday came around or rather what would have been Charlie's birthday. On that day he normally went to the cemetery to lay flowers at his son's grave, usually he was alone though sometimes Daniel accompanied him, his friend offering silent support.

Arriving at the doors the Asgard doctors – whose name he still didn't know – Jack pressed what he guessed to be the door control, while forcibly pushing the memories and pain of Charlie's death away. The door slid open and Jack moved into the compartment beyond where he found a raised dais in the centre of a room whose walls were polished to a mirror bright finish, they were polished so well that he could actually see his reflection in the metal.

What he saw stunned him.

Instead of seeing the body of a fit man in his early fifties – as much as Jack hated to admit how old he was – the body looking back at him was that of a much younger man in his early to mid thirties. _Whoa_, Jack thought as the younger man looking back at him looked even better than he had at that age, at least originally, indeed he seemed to now have the body of an athlete – a glance at his right arm showed that it was surprisingly well muscled – though he did notice his skin was covered in dull green goo from the tank he'd been grown in. _Grown damn that's a creepy thought_ he thought with a shiver that had nothing to do with the fact that he was cold. It felt downright weird to know that he was a clone, that his original body had presumably expired.

Mentally shaking himself Jack forced himself to get moving again and stepped up onto the raised circular dais – that somewhat reminded him of the holographic communications platforms he'd stood on in the past. For a moment nothing more happened then with a soft shimmer and a faint buzz of electrostatic tingle in the air a cylindrical force field appeared around the dais – half a second before three rings of white light descended from somewhere above him, and began to play up and down his new body. A strange tingling sensation came with them and to his surprise what looked to be steam started to appear in the air.

Holding up his arms he watched in shock as the horrid looking green goo covering every millimetre of his skin began to disappear – dissolving away into the steam before his very eyes. The steam got thicker as more and more of the goo dissolved away, subliming away into the atmosphere. Within a few seconds the steam evaporated away to nothing as the last of the goo disappeared leaving Jack feeling clean and refreshed – even though there had been no water involved – but then he'd expected the Asgard to have some high tech solution to showering off cloning fluid residue.

The glowing rings and the force field around the platform flashed once then vanished into nothingness. _Think I prefer showering the old fashioned way with hot water and soap,_ Jack thought _I could have taken my time and really enjoyed myself then._ Stepping down from the platform he retraced his steps and went back into the medical bay, to see a table had appeared out on nowhere and on it was a perfect replica of his day to day uniform – along with underpants, socks and a pair of combat boots. As promised the Asgard doctor had gotten some appropriate attire for him – though knowing the Asgard they'd just pulled a trick out of Star Trek's book and replicated the clothes and boots for him. _Shields, transporters, replicators boy was Gene Roddenberry ever right,_ he thought, _pity he was wrong about the whole space hippie thing._

Eager to be clothed again, Jack started pulling on what the Asgard had brought him. It was only when he was pulling on the boots that he realised that the Asgard had been kind enough to leave the room affording him some privacy to dress in. Jack appreciated the gesture even though it wasn't really necessary being career military he was used to communal showers, changing rooms and so on. Despite the initial embarrassment he'd felt when he'd woken up to find himself with no clothes on – which he put down to the semi-foggy state of his thoughts at the time – he was well used to being seen naked by others. Embarrassment of such things had long since been burned out of him.

After a few more moments the doors to the Asgard medical bay opened again and the diminutive alien doctor – at least that's what Jack believed him/her/it to be – came back into the room.

"Excellent you have now clothed yourself, O'Neill," the Asgard said. "Supreme Commander Thor is waiting for you in his chambers, if you will follow me I will take you there."

Jack nodded in agreement, guessing that Thor's quarters were on this level. Otherwise knowing the Asgard as he did they would use their beaming technology to transport him straight their.

"Lead on, McDuff," he said with a grin. The Asgard doctor gave him a confused look, before turning and starting to lead the way muttering softly in his own language about how bizarre and irrelevant the Tau'ri could be and Colonel O'Neill in particular.

Still grinning Jack followed the diminutive grey alien out of the medical bay and into the rest of the ship. Not for the first time he noticed how dark the interior of Asgard ships were, the lightning muted and indirect – to his eyes it was little more than bright twilight. It shone off the ornate techno-Nordic style of the Asgard décor – which was much more pleasing on the eye than the garish, extravagant buttresses, oil burners and ornate gold panelling that made up the interior design of Goa'uld vessels – providing just enough light for Jack to see where he was going without running the risk of colliding with anything. How the Asgard managed to see where they were going he had no idea though he suspected that with their disproportionately large eyes the low light didn't present an obstacle to the small but very powerful aliens.

As he followed the Asgard through the wide corridors and hallways of the ship Jack noted that here and there was evidence of damage, some of the interior bulkheads were buckled and here and there he could see the complex technology underneath. A number of Asgard technicians were working on the systems – obviously conducting repairs.

"There's damage to this ship," he commented as he observed the Asgard engineers working and rapidly conversing with each other in their own language.

"Indeed," the doctor replied. "The battle with Anubis was a hard one; towards the end of the battle several shots including one from his particle beam weapon penetrated our shields. There is damage on several decks especially along this ships port side though compared to some of our other ships we are lucky. Four of our Beliskner cruisers are quite badly damaged and two more along with one of our O'Neill battleships were destroyed in the confrontation."

"I know," Jack replied. "I don't remember much about what happened since I looked into that head-grabbing thing but I recall seeing one of your ships explode just after I sat in that chair thing in Antarctica."

"You are referring to an Alteran Repository of Knowledge and a Control Chair," the Asgard said.

"Alteran," Jack asked not familiar with that term.

"That was what the Ancients were called as a species," the doctor told him. "They have gone by many names over the course of their fifty million year history including Lantean and of course Ancients but their species name was Alteran."

"I see," Jack replied making a mental note to tell Daniel about that later, no doubt his friend would be fascinated to know it – unless of course Daniel already knew but didn't realise that he knew. It wouldn't be the first time that Daniel would just know something like that from his time amongst the ranks of the ascended – the fact that Daniel could read Ancient and even fluently speak the language was proof of that.

Before he could say anything else they came to a corridor junction and the Asgard doctor stopped and turned to look at him, inclining his head to do so. "If you turn left here and go through the door at the end of the corridor you will reach Supreme Commander Thor's chambers," he said. "I must return to the medical bay, there are matters there that require my attention."

"Okay," he said. "Before you go I just want to say, thanks for saving me."

"You are welcome, Colonel O'Neill," the Asgard replied before walking away leaving Jack standing at the corridor junction. Jack watched the little alien retreat for a few moments before shrugging and turning down the left hand corridor as he had been instructed. At the end he found a set of doors with a control stone on the wall beside them, remembering what he'd done to open these doors when he'd been on the _Beliskner_ he put his hand on the stone. Immediately the control stone lit up, gave a soft tone and the doors slid open.

"Greetings O'Neill," Thor said as he stepped into the room to see the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet sitting in one of the familiar throne-like chairs.

"Hey buddy," Jack replied in greeting smiling at the diminutive alien who he counted as one of his closest friends next to the rest of SG-1. "Oh by the way thanks for the rescue."

"You are most welcome, O'Neill," Thor answered getting up from his chair and approaching the Human who had earned his trust, friendship and respect. Though O'Neill could be maddeningly irrelevant in conversation he knew the Tau'ri officer was a good man, a credit to his race. "Indeed we should thank you," he added.

"Why's that," Jack asked.

"For ridding the developing sentient species of this galaxy of one of their greatest enemies," Thor replied. "The destruction of Anubis is an important victory even though he did break the Protected Planets Treaty. We have since reminded the Goa'uld of the foolishness of such behaviour, they will not forget again in a hurry." Jack inwardly shivered knowing what Thor meant by that – the Asgard had launched a punishment attack on the System Lords, reminding them just how powerful the Asgard were and the risk the Goa'uld took whenever they broke the treaty, the risk of a war that as far as the System Lords knew the Goa'uld could not hope to win.

"It was past time that the Goa'uld learned that we will no longer tolerate any treaty violations. My only regret," Thor continued "is that we did not arrive here quickly enough to prevent Anubis bombarding Earth."

Jack swallowed loudly, bracing himself for bad news as he asked Thor a question that he dreaded to ask but whose answer he had to know. "How bad is it," he asked.

"I am afraid that the damage to Earth is quite severe, O'Neill," Thor replied sympathetically. "Our sensors have confirmed the destruction or near total destruction of thirty-one cities across multiple continents. There was also severe atmospheric ionisation and pollution from the fallout of the blasts however we have since dealt with that situation."

"What about casualties," Jack asked feeling as through someone had just punched him hard in the stomach. He was afraid to ask that question but he had to, even though he already had some idea of what the answer would be.

"I am afraid that I do not have that information, O'Neill," Thor answered. "However going on the difference between our records and the number of life forms our sensors now reveal then casualties will be very high."

Jack nodded but didn't respond. Instead like the rest of his team before him he closed his eyes as pain and grief threatened to overwhelm him. Unknowingly like many others in the program he wondered just how they could have let this happen, where had they gone wrong? They'd always been able to prevent Goa'uld attacks on Earth in the past, how had they failed this time?

_Before though the Goa'uld have always sent single or pairs of ships,_ a little voice said from somewhere deep within him. _This was the first time in over six thousand years that a Goa'uld brought a full scale attack fleet to Earth, what chance do you think nuclear missiles, railguns and guerrilla style space warfare had against a fleet like that? You've been dependent on the fear of the Asgards wrath to protect Earth, you didn't count on an even greater fear driving Anubis to risk it and bring an armada to Earth to destroy it._

Reluctantly Jack had to acknowledge that that part of him right. Even with the development of the _Prometheus_ their whole Earth defence strategy had been dependent on the Protected Planets Treaty and the System Lords being to terrified of the Asgard Fleets wrath to risk openly violating it. A dependence that had now been proven by Anubis to be fatally flawed – that in some situations a System Lord would openly violate the treaty and destroy them and risk incurring the Asgards fury. _Situations like us possibly finding our way to Atlantis or getting our hands on Ancient weapons technology,_ he thought, _either of which would be the stuff of Goa'uld nightmares. If the snakes even have nightmares._

With effort Jack pushed the pain away, there would be time to mourn the dead later. Right now he needed to get down there and help in anyway he could. "I need to go down there," he said.

"I anticipated as much," Thor replied. "I will transport you down to Stargate Command from here. But I believed it important that we speak first, especially as I would like you to convey a message from the Asgard High Council to the leaders of your planet."

"What kind of message," Jack asked.

"A message that we will not abandon you in your hour of need," Thor replied. "You have much rebuilding to do and we will help you as much as we can."

"That's very generous."

"It is the least we can do. Even though the Replicators have been destroyed the legacy of damage to our fleet remains, thus our resources are currently quite limited however we will help as much as we are able to. This we promise you, O'Neill."

"Thank you, Thor," Jack answered touched, he knew how badly weakened the Asgard were by the war with the Replicators the fact that they were willing to share as many resources as they could to help them rebuild was the mark of a true friend.

Thor gave a subtle Asgard nod of acknowledgement before moving with his species normal grace across the room to the pedestal like control console. "I will transport you to Stargate Command now," Thor said moving one of the control stones to another position on the console and then tapping a few of the runic symbols that appeared on the console in the right sequence.

Jack took one last quick look around Thor's chambers, before everything dissolved in the familiar silver-white light of an Asgard transporter beam. For a moment out of time all Jack saw was the light and felt a pronounced rushing sensation as he his molecules were instantly transported a huge distance. Then it was gone, the light faded to reveal the bare concrete walls of the embarkation room in Stargate Command. Suddenly from behind him he heard shouts and spun around to find that he was standing on the top of the embarkation ramp in front of the gate and facing him were a dozen marines wielding M16A4 assault rifles.

All of which were pointed right at him.

"Howdy folks," he said with a cheeky grin. "I'm home."

For a few moments tension reigned in the room and Jack began to sweat a little as the rifles remained pointed right at his head. He supposed it was understandable that the marines hadn't lowered their rifles when they saw him, after all he didn't exactly look the way they had remembered. _Thor should have thought of that before beaming me into the middle of the gateroom,_ he thought, _I'm just lucky none of these guys are trigger happy._

Over the tops of the marine's heads he saw the right hand side blast door open and Daniel came through accompanied by someone else who he couldn't see beyond a flash of dark hair.

"Stand down," a female voice ordered. Instantly the marines obeyed moving their weapons to an at ease position and moving aside to let the woman through – though Jack was aware that there were a great many suspicious eyes trained his way. He couldn't blame the marines – they were only doing their jobs and couldn't be sure that he wasn't a threat to them.

"Jack," Daniel said in disbelief as he approached with the dark haired woman who Jack finally recognised as Doctor Elizabeth Weir there new boss.

"Hey, Daniel," Jack replied. "What's with the guns?"

"You'll have to forgive the marines, colonel," Weir said. "They are somewhat jumpy I'm sure you can understand why. I have to admit you look… different. I know the Asgard were cloning you a new body but this…" she gestured at Jack's new younger looking body.

"Hey I'm not complaining, its not everyday you wake up and find yourself in a new body that looks twenty years younger."

"Yes I can see that," Weir replied. "Still I want our doctors here to have a look over you, just in case."

Jack scowled at the thought of the bases doctors poking and prodding him but he knew better than to argue. It was protocol after all that anyone coming back from off world get subjected to a thorough medical examination, just to make sure they weren't carrying some horrible contagion or picked up an unwanted snake hitchhiker.

"Is that really necessary," he asked trying to get out of it, after all he'd only just come from an Asgard ship. He was most unlikely to have picked up anything nasty there, nor were the Asgard likely to let a Goa'uld parasite get aboard one of their ships.

"Better to be safe than sorry, colonel as you well know," Weir replied.

Jack sighed. "Alright I'll go," he said before starting down the ramp to the gateroom floor.

"Come on, Jack I'll take you," Daniel said. "I've got a few things to fill you in on, once the doctors have cleared you."

"What kind of things, Daniel?"

"You'll see, Jack," Daniel replied mysteriously leading him out of the gateroom. "You'll see."

* * *

Elizabeth Weir watched the two men leave the gateroom. She could guess what Daniel was going to tell the suddenly younger Jack O'Neill about once he got cleared by the doctors. _If he gets cleared,_ she thought. While she knew that the Asgard were supposedly Earth's allies she didn't know enough about them yet to be sure that they wouldn't try something. Quietly she made a mental note to read more of the mission reports on the Asgard as soon as she had five minutes free to do so.

This didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon, even though she'd sent a large chunk of personnel off the base to help search for survivors in Colorado Springs. The fact that the Alpha Site was carrying out protocol eighteen was keeping the Stargate busy, and there was always the possibility that the Goa'uld might try something to take advantage of their weakened state. Even though they would be foolish to do so what with the Asgard Fleet in orbit.

"Doctor Weir," Walter Harriman's voice abruptly said from the wall speakers.

"What is it Walter," Weir asked turning in place to look at the sergeant on the other side of the thick bullet proof glass that separated the control room from the gateroom.

"The _Prometheus_ has just come out of hyperspace in orbit," Walter replied. "They're requesting permission to begin satellite deployment."

"Permission granted. Inform the presidential emergency bunker," Weir instructed. "I'll be in the infirmary if anyone needs me."

"Yes ma'am."

Confident that Walter would carry out her instructions with the speed and efficiency that he was well regarded for in the program Elizabeth left the gateroom to head down to the infirmary. She had to admit to being very curious about what the doctors were going to find when they checked over Colonel O'Neill. Despite herself she couldn't help but be curious if there were any major differences between the original Jack O'Neill and the newly cloned one, she had a feeling that there might be but she couldn't be sure. Hopefully there would be nothing major wrong and he'd be cleared for duty so she could put him to work here. She could certainly use his counsel.

She supposed she would know soon enough.

* * *

**Presidential Emergency Bunker**

**A Few Minutes Later**

President Henry Hayes allowed himself a small smile as he read over one of the first reports back from the search teams entering the damaged or levelled cities across his country. It had been delivered to his desk by a softly smiling SO a few moments ago, and now he understood why.

The rescue teams were finding survivors. Despite the Goa'uld's best efforts some people in the cities had survived the orbital bombardment and were starting to make their way out of the shattered ruins of the places that had been their home. Though there losses had been high as reports of casualties were starting to come in as well as reports of survivors, it was a sign of the most precious commodity of all in times like this.

It was a sign of hope.

Putting the report down he sighed in relief. It was nice to know that there were survivors being found – only a few at the moment but he was sure the numbers would rise. In his experience the American people were nothing if not resilient, and this only provided more proof of that resilience. Despite what the Goa'uld had done to them, they would recover and so would the rest of the world. _Though what kind of world will it be,_ he thought, _as nothing can go back to the way it was. Not now, not after what has happened._

It was at that moment that there was a knock at the door. "Come in," he called looking over at the door set in its crystalline frame – he was finally getting used to the idea that this whole facility had literally been grown using alien technology. A fact that was impossible to forget as you only had to look at the spun glass effect of the crystalline walls to know this place was made of custom grown crystals. The door opened and General George Hammond appeared in the doorway.

"Yes, George," he asked as his old friend came into the room. "What is it?"

"Mr President we've received word from the SGC," Hammond reported. "The _Prometheus_ has returned from the Alpha Site, they're beginning to deploy the satellites in orbit."

"Excellent. How long till were able to get some global communication back?" Hayes asked.

"No more than an hour, Mr President," Hammond replied.

"That's good news, it will coordinating relief efforts globally a lot easier when we've got communications back."

"Yes sir."

"Is there more, George?"

"Yes sir. Colonel O'Neill has been returned from the Asgard ships, but he's been cloned."

"Cloned, why?"

"Apparently the Asgard determined that Jack's original body was to badly damaged by his exposure to the Ancients knowledge. So they cloned him a new body."

"Interesting."

"Indeed, from the report Jack appears to be thirty years younger than he was a few days ago. He's currently being examined by the doctors at the SGC – after our last experience with Asgard cloning technology Doctor Weir is apparently not taking any chances."

"Understandable."

"Yes sir. We've also received a fresh report from the search teams in Washington DC. I have news of the vice president."

"He's dead isn't he," Hayes asked.

"I'm afraid so sir," Hammond replied sounding genuinely saddened by Kinsey's death. Though the man had been a grade-a asshole he didn't deserve to die the way he did. "His motorcade was caught by an explosion in the bombardment of Washington. Most of them were killed outright – flash burned to death."

Hayes winced. That was a truly horrible way for someone to die, literally being enveloped in a superhot fireball, though mercifully quick. "And Kinsey," he asked.

"Vice President Kinsey survived the blast, the reinforced trinium-titanium cage that's been retrofitted on all government limousines protected him from the worst of the blast. But he was very badly wounded. From the report he died shortly after one of the rescue teams making their way into the city found the remains of his motorcade."

"I see," Hayes replied, he wouldn't miss Kinsey that much. He knew how much of an arrogant fool the power hungry vice president had been, though he wouldn't have wished the way Kinsey and his motorcade had died on his worst enemy. And did have to concede that Kinsey had had a point when he said that the Stargate was to dangerous to operate – but only to a point. If anything this attack proved that protecting the planet was a duty that fell to every nation and thus everybody needed to know about the gate and to share in the knowledge gained from its use. _Its just a pity it took something like this to make everyone realise how much over our heads we've been getting,_ he thought, _and that manifest destiny is not always going to get us through._

"What about the Asgard ships general what are they doing at the moment," Hayes asked at last.

"At the moment there just sitting there in orbit, Mr President. The probes they deployed into the atmosphere have been recalled. There is no pollution or fallout left in the atmosphere."

"None at all?"

"None. According to the sensors on the Asgard sentry satellites the atmosphere is now cleaner than it has been since before the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century."

"Wow," Hayes said softly stunned both by the that the Asgard could manipulate the atmosphere of a planet to such a degree and that in cleaning up the fallout the Asgard had also inadvertently delivered a mortal blow to rampant global warming. Without the excess greenhouse gasses from industry and cars in the atmosphere the world's climate should in theory now return to what it had been before the industrial revolution began the process of stepping on the global warming accelerator pedal, turning a slow, steady natural process into a raging monster that had threatened to cause climatic chaos.

He was about to speak again when there came a knock at the door. Turning in place Hammond looked back to see Major Davis in the doorway. "General, Mr President we've just received a message from Supreme Commander Thor," he said. "He wants to know what the satellites being deployed in orbit by the _Prometheus_ are."

"Tell him what they are then," Hayes said.

"We already have sir, and the Asgard have just made us an offer."

"What kind of offer?" Hayes asked.

"Thor said that if we can provide them with the specifications for the satellites the Asgard would be glad to manufacture as many as we need and deploy them in orbit for us."

"That is very generous," Hayes said thoughtfully. "General Hammond do we have the specs for the satellites available?"

"Yes sir," Hammond replied.

"Then have them transmitted to the Asgard and thank Commander Thor for me," Hayes instructed.

"Yes sir."

"And as soon as we get some global communications back get me the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China on the line. We have a lot to talk about, we cannot keep the rest of the world in the dark about who attacked us and why."

"Mr President are you sure that is wise," Davis asked in concern. The very reason they'd kept the existence of the Stargate and all the wonders and dangers that came with it a secret was because the world wasn't ready to know of its existence. If the truth got out there would be chaos worldwide. _At least that's what we've told ourselves for years,_ a treacherous part of him thought.

"The world deserves to know, major," Hayes replied. "They have the right to know why millions have people have been slaughtered in their homes, offices and schools by an enemy they couldn't even see let alone fight back against. All hope of continuing to keep the Stargate Program a secret died when Anubis began his bombardment."

"I understand your concern major and to be honest I share it," Hammond admitted. "The world may not be really ready to know of the existence of the gate, certainly we weren't ready to open the damned thing in the first place, but this attack has forced our hand. There is no way a cover story would be believed, not anymore and if we don't tell the rest of the world about what really happened and why then you can bet the other countries in the know will."

"General Hammond is correct, major," Hayes added. "I had intended to increase international participation in all manner of the Stargate Program over the course of my administration while keeping it all secret, but now keeping the gate a secret is no longer possible. Plus a lot of people the world over will have seen the Goa'uld fighters and bombers in the atmosphere and possibly seen the motherships through telescopes, secrecy is no longer possible."

"I see your point, sirs," Davis admitted knowing that both Hayes and Hammond were correct, disclosure had to happen now – far, far sooner than anyone would have liked. "But Mr President might I suggest we keep international focus on relief efforts for the next few months, we can always reveal the existence of the Stargate when the injured have been cared for and the dead mourned."

"I intend to, major," Hayes replied. "But make no mistake the Stargate will be revealed to the people of this planet as soon as the relief situation becomes less urgent. I know the military won't like it and you won't like sharing all your high-tech alien inspired toys with the rest of the world's armed forces but there is no choice now. The gene is out of the bottle major it cannot and will not go back in.

"In away the Goa'uld may well have done us a favour with this attack," he continued. "It's been a kick to our arrogance and complacency, and the revelation of a common enemy and that we are not alone in the universe should at long last unite this planet."

"It might or it might destroy us," Davis pointed out. "But your right there is no choice now, the truth must be known. We were foolish and arrogant to think we could deal with the threat of the Goa'uld alone. And now that arrogance and belief in our own manifest destiny has led to millions of deaths."

"Exactly, now go one gentlemen see to my instructions," Hayes said.

"Yes sir," Hammond and Davis said in unison before leaving the office, shutting the door behind them.

Alone in the office once more Hayes sighed, leaned back in his chair and thought about Major Davis last words. _That's what it really comes down to doesn't it,_ he thought, _our history of manifest destiny and believing that we can do what we want without consequence because we are American, and now that childish arrogance has brought about what's probably the greatest single loss of Human life since the Second World War._ After a moment he sighed again, they were going to have to make up for that now, reveal the truth and accept whatever consequences the people of the world decided they deserved for endangering them all without even having the decency to ask. _We have behaved like children,_ he thought, _but now we must show the maturity and responsibility of adults and accept our own responsibility for what has befallen our world, but first we must help all those caught up in this holocaust._ Taking responsibility and showing a true maturity was going to mean a sharp change in attitude for a lot of people but he was confident that they would manage it, because at the end of the day they had no choice.

No choice at all.

* * *

**Ba'al's Throne World**

**That Same Time**

"**He did WHAT,"** Ba'al thundered glaring down from his golden throne at Eris in shock disbelief and horror.

He had been surprised when a few hours ago Eris had appeared through the chappa'ai on one of his outposts, claiming she was fleeing the destruction of one of Anubis facilities by the Asgard and offering her services and knowledge to him. Knowledge that included full specifications for some of the equipment used by Anubis' deadly Kull Warrior drones, such as the energy absorbing armour that made them so deadly. Eris deserting Anubis had puzzled him enough that he'd had her brought here to his throne world to interrogate her himself.

"**Anubis took his elite forces to attack the Tau'ri," **Eris replied.

"**Why would he do such a thing? Anubis knows full well that attacking the Tau'ri is strictly forbidden by the Protected Planets Treaty,"** Ba'al demanded furiously. He didn't understand why Anubis would do such a thing even as powerful as he was. As breaking the treaty could well lead to something that was amongst the greatest nightmares of Goa'uld everywhere. It could lead to war with the Asgard, a war that the Goa'uld would have little to no chance of winning, the Asgards power was just far too great for them, their technology to far above their own. He could only conclude that Anubis had finally gone mad if he was willing to risk provoking the wrath of their ancient, diminutive adversaries.

"**Anubis believed that the Tau'ri had acquired the weapons of the Ancients and had learned the location of a lost Ancient city my lord,"** Eris answered drawing a gasp from Ba'al as the Tau'ri getting their hands on the weapons of the most powerful race to ever walk the stars was almost as big a nightmare as war between the Goa'uld and the Asgard.

"**And have they?"** Ba'al asked.

"**I believe the former is very likely,"** Eris replied. **"I do not know the status of the force Anubis took to the Tau'ri homeworld but I can only assume that the attack failed and that the fleet was destroyed. Because a short time later a fleet of Asgard warships larger than any we have seen since the last Great War struck at the throne world. They destroyed the remaining elite Ha'tak's in orbit before proceeding to destroy all groundside ships, munitions factories and shipyards. Shortly after that they came to Tartarus and destroyed the Kull Warrior facilities there. I was only just able to escape with my life; the facility was exploding as I entered the chappa'ai."**

Ba'al frowned thoughtfully. Such an attack by the Asgard Fleet had all the hallmarks of a punishment raid, had the Asgard been mounting an all out attack then Ba'al knew that they would not have stopped with attacks on just Tartarus and Anubis' throne world. They would have struck the rest of the System Lords as well, with multiple fleets of their deadly warships sowing terror and panic among the ranks of the System Lords. The only reason for the Asgard to stop their attack at those two targets was if they were delivering both retribution for a failed treaty violation and reminding the greater Goa'uld race of what could happen if they violated the treaty.

The question was though, if Anubis had failed had he failed because he had been intercepted by the Asgard and been destroyed in an engagement with them? Or had Anubis reached Earth and been destroyed by the Tau'ri using weapons created by the Ancients? Either was not good news though Ba'al was leaning more towards the former – that the Asgard had found out what Anubis was up to and put a stop to his attack at the point of their particle cannons. The latter was just too horrible to consider.

"**Rise,"** he instructed and watched as Eris stood up. **"You are not stupid, Eris what do you believe is the likely outcome of Anubis' attack?"**

"**I believe he was intercepted by an Asgard battle phalanx and destroyed, my lord," **Eris replied. **"Either way I believe the High Council of the System Lords should be informed."**

"**Indeed if the Asgard are once more aggressively enforcing the treaty then the others need to know," **Ba'al agreed. **"I will call for the council to gather at Hazara. I appreciate you bringing me this information, Eris. There is a place for you in my court if you wish it as a reward."**

"**I wish it," **Eris replied before going down on one knee as the ritual and protocol for matters such as this demanded. **"I pledge myself, my knowledge and my skills to your service, Lord Ba'al."**

Ba'al smiled slightly, stood up from his throne and descended to the bottom of the dais before placing his host's hands on the shoulders of Eris's host in the ritual response to a minor Goa'uld offering a pledge of service to a System Lord. **"I accept your pledge,"** he responded in the proper response. **"Know that I will reward loyalty with honour, valour with glory, deceit with vengeance. Do you accept this?"**

"**I do my lord."**

"**Then I accept you into my service,"** Ba'al replied before removing his hands and returning to his throne. **"Arise Lady Eris," **he ordered, Eris immediately complied returning to her feet. Ba'al gestured to his lotar. **"See to all of Lady Eris's needs."**

"As my lord commands," the enslaved Human answered with a bow to his master, before descending to join Eris at the foot of the dais.

"**Follow my lotar," **Ba'al instructed Eris. **"He will see to assignment of quarters and your future duties here."**

"**Yes my lord,"** Eris replied before the Human began leading her out of the throne room, leaving Ba'al alone with only the flickering flames of the oil burners so beloved by the Goa'uld for company. So far her hastily conceived plan seemed to be working and she'd gotten into Ba'al's service. Eventually she would be able to get into Ba'al's inner circle of lieutenants and possibly eventually slay Ba'al and reclaim the rank and power that Cronos had taken from her so many years ago; the rank of System Lord.

But that was for the future. For now she would be content just to live and prove her worth to Lord Ba'al, only then would she gain his trust – at least as much trust as it was possible for one Goa'uld to extend to another. Once that goal was accomplished much would become possible, starting with the elimination of that disgustingly obese fool Nerus. A faint smile teased at the edges of her host's lips at the thought of eliminating Nerus and finally getting her revenge on him for betraying her to Cronos all those years ago. Revenge was after all like the finest wine, it had to be fermented until the time was right to take it. She would wait awhile longer and when the time was right she would take great pleasure in terminating Nerus and taking his rank and power in Ba'al's inner circle for herself.

And that was something she really looked forward to.

* * *

Ba'al watched as Eris and his lotar left his throne room, leaving him alone. He wondered how long it would take for Nerus to learn she was here, the fat scientists reaction when he found out would be _entertaining _to say the least. Ba'al was aware of the history between Eris and Nerus, Eris presence would keep the obese fool on his toes and out of the kitchen for once. It would be most enjoyable to watch Nerus looking over his shoulder constantly wondering from where Eris's knife would come as it surely would eventually.

But for now there were other matters to attend to. Calmly he touched a hidden control on his throne and the sound of a gong being struck echoed through the cavernous throne room. Within seconds one of the doors to the room opened and his First Prime, a big dark skinned Jaffa named Dra'nay entered the room and walked up to the front of the throne dais and dropping to one knee.

"What is thy bidding my lord," Dra'nay asked his head bowed in respect to his god.

"**Send a subspace message to the other System Lords," **Ba'al ordered. **"Request a meeting at the Hazara station to convene as soon as possible. Once you have done that send a message to my fleet commanders, have them report to me at once."**

"As my lord commands," Dra'nay responded.

"**Dismissed," **Ba'al said.

"Yes my lord," Dra'nay answered getting to his feet but keeping his head bowed as he left the throne room until Ba'al was once again alone.

Leaning back as much as he could on his throne Ba'al smiled slightly. He knew that the other System Lords would agree to the council, especially as the rumours about what had happened to Anubis were bound to start circulating very soon now. All Goa'uld spied on each other after all; it was their way, a way that had served them well for many thousands of years. But in the meantime there was another opportunity, one that he would be a fool to ignore.

With the demise of Anubis a number territories would be up for grabs, especially as soon Anubis' lieutenants would begin fighting amongst themselves, trying to carve out their own little empires. If his fleet moved quickly to take advantage of the fighting when it began he could conceivably capture several sectors and the resource rich systems they contained before the other System Lords could; which would only help fuel his ambitions to rise to the top of the Goa'uld hierarchy and claim the crown that had been vacant ever since Ra's unfortunate demise, the crown of Supreme System Lord.

As for the Tau'ri, he would deal with them when the time came. One way or another they would accept and bow down to him as their god. It was inevitable after all, the Goa'uld always eventually conquered Human societies, no matter how advanced they were – something so recently learned by the Tollan when they fell to Anubis. And so it would be with the Tau'ri, though it might take quite sometime. But that didn't matter to him. He was a god after all he had all the time in the universe.

* * *

And so ends the first story in this series, the series will continued in Altered Destiny: After the Fire.


End file.
